


Sonic and the Fallen King

by flamewarflipsides



Series: Sonic and the White World [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions, Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Adventure, Crossover, Deconstruction, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Gen, Hero of Ideals, Hero of Truth, M/M, Pokeball Controversy, Pokemon Liberation, Redemption, Team Plasma, Team Rocket - Freeform, Thriller, pokeball, storybook
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 10:22:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 47,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1017452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamewarflipsides/pseuds/flamewarflipsides
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Blue Tint. Sonic and N set out for Unova to save Kyurem and free Pokemon, but their idealism does little without concrete plans. A trainer from Kanto understands Sonic's goals better than N, but what does he want? For that matter, what does Sonic want, and why is he here? Set during the ending of Pokemon: White 2; spoils Sonic Generations and the Storybook series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fly

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your interest in this story!
> 
> If you haven't read "Blue Tint," You need to read that first. This story is a sequel to it! You can find a link to Blue Tint in the author's comment below.
> 
> This story is a crossover between the Sonic games continuity, especially the "Modern era" 3D games, and the Pokemon games continuity, especially the Kanto and Unova games. As such, this contains massive spoilers for the following:
> 
> Sonic and the Secret Rings  
> Sonic and the Black Knight  
> Sonic Colors  
> Sonic Generations  
> Pokemon: Colosseum  
> Pokemon: Fire Red/Leaf Green  
> Pokemon: Heart Gold/Soul Silver  
> Pokemon: Black and White  
> Pokemon: Black 2/White 2  
> Pokemon Dream Radar
> 
> Please note that this story was written in its entirety before the release of Pokemon X & Y and Sonic: Lost World. It may be inaccurate relative to those stories. 
> 
> This story also contains some content that may shock, disturb, or annoy readers. That includes:
> 
> * Light Shipping (straight and yaoi)  
> * Frank discussions of topics like racism, prejudice, homophobia, and slavery  
> * Frank discussions of Pokemon abuse and control, including the notion of Pokeballs as a mind control device   
> * Verbal and emotional abuse of Pokemon  
> * Verbal and emotional abuse of human beings   
> * Major character death
> 
> Thank you for your patience. Enjoy the show!

_"You really aren't from this world. Sonic, the kind of being for which I mistook you here is frequently enslaved. Your uniqueness would mark you as valuable. If people see you with me… they should leave you alone. Otherwise, I fear for your freedom, and your safety." The man with green hair shook his head, closing his eyes like he was trying to block something out. "If you aren't a Pokemon, who knows what effect a Pokeball might have. A sample size of one is no sample at all…"_

_I leaned back, grinning. "Sounds like I wound up here for a reason then!" Then I scratched under my nose. I wondered if I did that as much as he shook his head. "I'll just set all the animals free like I've been doing for years."_

_N chuckled, sighing. "What do you think I have been trying to do? The formula for liberation has too many variables for one man to change alone."_

  
  


* * *

 

As the world crept back in around me, I expected to feel a warm bed under my side, the pages of a book on my nose.

Instead, I felt cold, hard rock, and hair on my face.

I opened my eyes as fast as I could. Yup, hair. Pale green hair, attached to a long,s noring human body, which was curled up next to a big white fluffy dragon.

Right. So that dream about winding up in a world full of slaves actually happened. Not waking up with a book this time. It wasn't summer, I wasn't in Station Square, and this wasn't Kansas, or even the United Federation.

I sat up, slowly, looking at them. The weird little man and his big old dragon buddy, N and Reshiram. The guys who were gonna change the world and save all the Pokemon, whatever the heck a Pokemon is.

And I was gonna help them, if I didn't do more harm than good, anyway.

I started looking for a way out, and some shallow water to wash my face in. Maybe someone else to talk to. N sold me on his plans pretty easily, and I wanted an outside perspective.

Outside, I found a little stream, and a lady washing her kids in it. Looking back, nothing about the way she looked said "lady" to me. It might have been the attention she was giving the kids. I'm not even sure why I started talking to her. Maybe it's becuase she and the kids had two tails, just like… well, Tails. They looked more like weasels than foxes, but I it was enough to make me think of him. Enough to let my guard down.

"Mornin'," I called, nodding.

All three of 'em, mom and babies, froze in their tracks and looked at me. After a second, they sighed, relieved.

"Morning," the mother returned, guarded. I couldn't tell how, but the way she spoke was different. For some reason, I also suddenly I knew she was called a Floatzel. "Is your trainer with you?"

"I don't have one."

"Then why do you talk like a human?"

I shrugged. "My parents taught me. …Mind if I wash my face in your stream here?"

She blinked at me, cocking her head to the side. "Why would you have any less right to the stream here than we do?"

So Pokemon weren't all that territorial. I filed that away in my head. "I don't know. Might be different. I'm from far away." I decided to cut to the chase. "From a place where there are no Pokemon or trainers."

One of the children laughed. "Mommy, how does he not know about trainers?" He was a buizel. How did I know that?

She shot the little kid a glare. "Humans capture our kind in these tiny spheres and use them to fight. Some Pokemon like fighting, and seek the humans out because they think humans make them stronger. Most of us just try to keep away from them."

I nodded. "And all humans are bad?" I knelt down by the water and splashed some on my face, hoping I wouldn't fall in.

"No. Not all of them. There's a human with green hair, the Hero of Truth. He wants to free us from humans. I hear he used to want to separate the species, but now I hear he's compromised. He wants to stop humans from capturing Pokemon." She shook her head a little, disapproving. "I hear he's nearby."

She was right. I'd just slept maybe three feet from his face, although that didn't explain how his hair got all the way over to me. Still, I kept that to myself. I wanted to learn as much as I could from someone who wasn't a fanatic, and I don't think she liked him.

"Sounds like you aren't too fond of the guy."

"He's a fool. Humans can't be stopped. Something about them brings out the strongest in Pokemon. Some even follow certain humans without those little balls." She looked at children, frowning. "The only way to be free of humans is to stay places where few humans travel, and stay just weak enough not to catch their eye."

Yikes.

"Sonic?"

I turned and looked behind me. "Yeah, N?"

He was there, his hair going every which way out from under his hat, smiling. "I thought I dreamed you."

"I know, right? This lady was just telling me about how Pokemon who don't wanna get caught pull it off." I turned to her; she was glaring at me. "Thanks for clearin' things up for me." Then I walked over to him.

He smiled at her. "We'll give her more options. We're flying today. I'm going to see if I can get some information on what's happened to Kyurem in a place called Chargestone Cave."

  
  


* * *

  
  


N tried to brief me on the flight over, telling me things he hadn't gotten to the night before. Only problem was, he doesn't understand the meaning of the word brief. He tried to dump it all on me at once: The story of Team Plasma and the legendary dragons. The story of how he became the champion, and his defeat by the girl with the baseball cap who fought alongside Zekrom, Reshiram's opposite. He told me about how all of it was a scheme by his dad to take over the world and steal Pokemon. He told me about how he ran away two years ago to find himself. Now, apparently, something bad happened to Kyurem, the dragon Reshiram and Zekrom came from. He suspected his dad.

But that's about all I got out of what he told me.

I do best with stories when I can read them, or imagine that I'm in them. After a while of listening to motormouth, suddenly Reshiram's fuzz was more interesting.

After a while, N chided, "Trying to understand the current state of the world without understanding its history is like trying to solve an equation with multiple variables, knowing none."

Though he sounded just as calm as he usually did, I could feel the criticism. I looked up at him. "I didn't get where I have in life by sitting in a classroom and listening to other people's solutions. I learn by seeing."

N nodded. "But we must pass this time somehow…"

"What goes on in this Chargestone Cave?"

N glanced down at the land but I don't think he saw it "It's a scientific anomaly. Trainers come there to capture rare Pokemon, and often battle each other. Scientists experiment there. Pokemon live their lives."

"So I might get to see someone capture a pokemon. Maybe see trainers fight."

"Yes."

I ran my fingers through the down on Reshiram's back, trying not to think about what my next question meant. "And what do I do if someone sees me?"

"Act like you're with me, though I would prefer we keep my presence a secret."

I looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. "You're flying in on a giant dragon and you wanna keep your presence a secret? N, buddy, think about this. Reshiram here is not exactly stealth."

"He's right, N," the dragon chided.

"I know he's right," N snapped. Well, snapped with him is relative; his voice stayed light and calm, but he spoke faster than he ususally does. "But there is no way to conceal my return. Without Reshiram, I would take a commercial boat or flight. Team Plasma could easily obtain those records. However, if I recall Reshiram into a Pokeball and travel with your assistance, so long as you are faster than the Shadow Triad, I can keep them confused as to where in the region I am."

I nodded. Still, for some reason I felt a need to press my luck. "Why hide at all? Why not come out in the open, and challenge your dad directly if he's responsible?"

N shook his head. He does that a lot. "My father can convince people to behave in ways that benefit him. He figures out what they desire and finds a way to make that suit his own goals." I thought his voice cracked a little. "The only way to beat him is to conceal your intentions, or to so carefully obscure your actions that he cannot factor you into his equation."

"So you think that if you just run around Unova and never stay in the same place, he won't realize it when you go in for the kill."

N turned back to face me, a glint of anger in his blue eyes. "No killing. That is not my way."

"It ain't mine either." I glanced off the side. "It's an expression."

I saw him look away out of the corner of my eye. "I will convince him that I'm too frightened to intervene. I'll dawdle as I did when I began to suspect I was wrong about humanity. We will ensure that people see me far away from Giant Chasm when my allies in old Team Plasma tell me he's mobilizing there… and you will carry me there with your famed speed."

"Sounds like a plan, N." I wasn't really looking forward to carrying a full size human any distance, but I was pretty sure I could do it. I'd just pretend N was a pretty girl. Still, something about the plan seemed strange to me, and I wasn't the only one. I could feel something tensing underneath me… the muscles of Reshiram's back. I gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.

"You have reservations?"

"Well, welI gotta see if I can even carry you. You seem pretty skinny, but I dunno." I looked down. "And… Something about this just doesn't sit right with me."

"Keep talking."

"Well… you're the hero of truth, right? So… why all the scheming?"

N shook his head. "What a naive view of truth. Reshiram is the Dragon of Truth, but his opposite is the Dragon of Ideals, not Lies. Truth is not honesty with others, but honesty with yourself: seeing the world as it truly is. Sincerity beat Ghetsis before, but it may not suffice again. He will expect it now. The best chance of his defeat lies in giving him inusuficient data to solve the equation… in telling little white lies."

I nodded. It's not like I haven't lied to stop the bad guy before. But it just bothered me, the hero of truth basing a whole campaign on deception. Like it just bothered me, a whole world where thinking, feeling creatures could be slaves.

"You remind me of that trainer…" he mused, turning back, away from me. I stared at his long, green hair, sticking up every just way. It looked familiar, but I couldn't place it…

Maybe I was over-thinking. Couldn't wait 'til I could run.


	2. Foresight

It seemed like it took forever before we landed in a valley. I tried not to flinch as N sucked Reshiram up into the ball. Then he lead me into a little hole in the mountain.

What I found was a cave that's as cool and blue as I am. Everything had a faint glow. But it didn't just look strange. I could smell something in the air like lightning; I could feel the hairs on my arm stand up. Something in my face felt weird, like I'd suddenly changed direction. I stopped in my tracks, and N smiled.

"Welcome to Chargestone Cave. The rocks here are magnetic... the field here is so special that there are some pokemon who can only evolve here. Many humans and Pokemon alike can sense the magnetism, though science has yet to discern exactly how."

N smiled and walked past me. He seemed to relax at first, but then his strides got shorter, his shaking head turning downward into the dirt. As I looked down, I noticed a lot of shoe prints... human-sized shoe prints. 

"Not used to foot traffic?"

"This place used to be quiet. There are many more people here... no doubt drawn by the Tournament in nearby Driftveil City." He shook his head again.

We walked until N brought us into a dead end. I started to turn around, but he kept going like it was an open path. I could see something beyond it, but there was a big blue rock in the way, and I was pretty sure we couldn't squeeze through.

"Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you stand to the right of that rock and push it?"

I raised an eyebrow. "N, we talked about this yesterday. I'm a speed guy, not power." I looked up at the rock. It was taller than me. Was that how people treated Pokemon? Like they were someone to do your grunt work for you?

"Humor me."

So I did. I planted my feet firmly and pressed my fingers into it. I leaned in with all my weight... and it snapped out from me, flying across the path with a crackle, hitting a huge bolder with a clang. I stumbled as it came out from in front of me, like the kid who kept pulling in tug of war after the other guy let go.

I rolled my eyes; he was smirking. "Sorry. I wanted to see it through the eyes of someone who has never heard of it before."

"Yeah, yeah. So what are we doing here?"

"It's my favorite place. And I have friends here. We can observe the trainers here, and you can learn by seeing."

He kept rattling on, but I sort of tuned it out as we snuck through the passages, ducking behind rocks as trainers approached. I didn't really want to hear about how he had the SHadow s nab his one friend here, and about how she was like some Bianca and Cheren, and blah blah blah. N talked, a lot. More than I could stand to listen to. I needed some action. It was another voice talking to me that got my attention.

"I've never seen a Pokemon like you before!"

My head snapped toward the voice; I already knew he was talking to me. I didn't expect a yellow, fuzzy bug tugging at my sock.

"Whoah!" I tried to get my composure back, and I managed to sound calmer as I told him, "Don't sneak up on a guy like that!"

"N, this one's kinda jumpy. Are you sure he's up to saving the Pokemon?" The creature scuttled around me, looking me over.

"Joltik, Sonic is from a world where creatures of your size don't typically talk." N knelt down by the little bug, who scuttled over and brushed up against him. 

"A ... world? You mean he's an alien?" Joltik scurried up over to me, poking my shoe. "Man, I thought I saw everything this week."

"This week?"

It was too quiet. I was too quiet. I couldn't let this little insect guy think I was a pushover. "Why, something else happen?"

The joltik jumped up and down a little, "Oh, I just met a trainer who was nice enough to send my daughter with!"

N cocked his head to the side. He almost looked a little betrayed. "Your... daughter?"

"Yeah. I had a daughter while you were gone, N, and she's really naive... I didn't want her getting captured by the bad people, so when I saw a trainer pass through asking her Pokemon what they wanted to do, I sent her off with her." The little bug looked down with all four eyes. "I'll miss her, and I know it's kinda not what we were fighting for, but better that lady than some bad guy who'll hurt her."

N nodded, sadly. "I think we had tunnel vision, Joltik."

So this was one of the guys who helped N before. 

"So did you settle down with that girl you were fighting?" The bug scooted back over to N and started scaling his leg. "She seemed really strong! I bet you would have strong babies! What do human babies look like? I've never seen one!"

As I N's pale face turn as red as my shoes, and he stuttered exlanations to Joltik, I realized I wasn't meant to see that. I mean, maybe this was how good trainers and Pokemon got along, the kind Joltik sent his kid off with. But it was too personal. I couldn't help but think of how I feel when people watch me go Super.

So I wandered off, making big enough movements that I was sure N saw where I went. I'd pretend to take a leak. That'd be less awkward.

And as I wandered, I got lost in the atmosphere... the crackle of electricity, the soft blue glow. Until I heard rocks crunch behind me, and I turned. The man I saw there was too big to be N."Well, well, well. Look what the Persian dragged in. A little thing like you shouldn't travel so far from his trainer. It's not safe."

The man smirked, leaning back against the wall of the cavern, a tiny thermos cup in his large hands. I couldn't see his clothes well in the dim light; they were too dark. I couldn't see much of the lady next to him either, because she was almost the same color as the rocks. Her long, spiky tail swished behind her, and she watched me, curious.

I crossed my arms. "What's it to you?" His dark eyes widened a little bit with shock; she cried out, and suddenly I knew she was a Nidoqueen. "I swear, it's like you never saw a guy talk before."

He grinned. "It certainly is rare for Pokemon to speak my language. So tell me, little Pokemon: Who is your trainer?"

Before I realized what I was doing, I felt my eyebrows pulling down. I was so sick of that question.

"He's not my trainer. I'm helping him."

He sipped from the cup. "I didn't know young Mr. Harmonia was in town. Interesting." The man sat his cup down on a rock. I fought a shudder. How did he know who I was with? Just from what I said? "I'm sure his father will be happy to hear it, if he isn't too busy trying to untie a straight jacket to notice."

I felt myself glare. That was a low blow. I wouldn't even talk about Eggman's grandfather that way. I snapped, "I bet your family's real well adjusted."

He winced, and the Nidoqueen growled. After a moment, he replied, "Fair enough. But I raised a son who was able to follow his own vision, one very much opposed to mine. That child only played into his father's hands. I tell you, little Pokemon; what Ghetsis did to your friend is appalling. I would hardly win a father of the year, but I've never used my child that way."

I decided I'd found this world's Eggman. Not fat enough, but close enough otherwise.

"And why are you telling me this?"

"Do you really want to serve a human who is as easily used as a Pokemon?" He picked up his tea again, and sipped. "I could offer you far more: more security, more opportunities for battle, more everything."

I shook my head. "You can't give me what I want."

"What do you want?"

"I want Pokemon to be free. N can't give me that either, but together we can make it happen."

He laughed. It was almost musical. Hs head tipped back a little, but his body stayed still. "That's charming. He still hasn't given up the dream that manipulated him. It will be used to manipulate him still, and you with him. Until he finds his own ambitions, he will forever be his father's pawn."

I tapped my foot. "I don't think you get it. I'm not a Pokemon: I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. Where I come from, I'm the fastest thing alive. I've saved my world countless times, and now I'm here in this one. Who cares where his dream comes frm? I'm gonna make it happen, and no one's gonna stop me."

He stood up, sipping the last of his drink and putting the cap on his thermos. "I have heard boasts like that many a time. Only one of the people behind them ever defeated me, and he went on to be defeated by a boy who beat me in silence." He looked at me, staring deep into my eyes, and suddenly I felt... naked. "Mark my words, Sonic the Hedgehog... No matter how strong you are, someday you'll lose." 

I tried to think of something to say, but as he and the Nidoqueen walked away, I couldn't come up with anything.

I must have stood there forever, becuase when N caught up to me, he made no mention of the man. "Sonic, you have put yourself in great peril by wandering off." 

"If you're not careful, a trainer will catch you!" Joltik chided, climbing on my foot.

I shook my head. "It's ok.. I met a guy and he didn't try and catch me. He thought I had a trainer, I guess."

N stared at me. "I suppose that would be because of your shoes. That's why I thought you had one."

Joltik seemed to understand a little better, becuase he asked, "So what about him spooked you so badly?"

I looked down at the little guy and glared. "I'm not spooked. But when he asked me who my trainer was, I said, he's not my trainer... and he knew I was talking about N." I looked up at my friend, whose blue eyes were reflecting the light of the cave. I couldn't really see what he felt in there. Kinda like what the guy said. "Then he went on about your dad. I think he was trying to warn me to look out for you. Well, until he asked me to come with him, anyway."

N blinked. "He is right about my father. I don't believe the rumors that he can't function." Then he shook his head. "I hoped you might have met Alder, but you say he asked you to be captured... "

I shrugged. "I must come off as pretty powerful. Still, I learned a lot from meeting him. That pokemon of his hung on every word he said. She didn't even talk to me."

Joltik shook his head, a move he got from N. "A lot of trained pokemon act like that when humans talk. At first it's 'cause you don't understand, but for the others... I think after a while, they start to forget they have a stake in things. They're just there to do whatever's expected of them. Like they don't have their own dream."

...Just like what the man with the Nidoqueen said. Wow.

"I think we have been spotted here enough. Sonic... shall we test your strength and speed against my mass?"

I smiled. That sounded more up my alley.


	3. Attract

We camped in the forest right outside, and in the morning it was back on Reshiram's back. We weren't even in the air long. After a couple minutes, we pulled up alongside a bridge, and N hopped onto the lower tier of it.

 

I joined him.

 

"This is the Tubeline Bridge." He raised his arm a little, motioning down the length of the metal bridge. The light filtered down to it in a grid pattern, like a giant window screen was over our heads. In front of us, there was a simple traintrack, the kind you usually see under a high There are no trains today… it is the perfect testing ground."

 

"You're sure about that?"

 

He nodded to Reshiram and recalled him into that ball. I flinched again. "I'm sure. This is a good place to see if you can even carry someone of my weight. We can worry about larger distances later." N walked over, standing close to me… too close for someone I didn't really know, but that came with the territory. "So how should I position myself?"

 

I blinked, frowning. "I think I'll have to do what they call a bridal carry." N stared at me, not blinking. The word seemed to mean nothing to him. "Uh, one hand under your knees, one hand under your back, your arms around my neck. It's something guys usually do to girls."

 

He blinked. "You seem hesitant. Is the bridal carry only done by romantic partners?"

 

"No… but it usually is." I shrugged. I didn't mean to make that big of a deal about it. "Here… just let me grab you."

 

He squatted down, and I did my best to get a hand under his knees, a hand behind his back. As he wrapped his arms around my neck, it felt… strange. A little too familiar. I had a dream about carrying someone, and I wasn't impressed with how it ended.

 

He must have felt me tense up, because he asked, "Are you all right, Sonic?"

 

"Fine. I expected you to be heavier."

 

Then I took off.

 

I think he expected me to stop at the other end of the bridge, because as I passed into the dimly-lit tunnel he asked me, "Sonic, where are you doing?"

 

I didn't answer, 'cause I didn't know.

 

It felt great to take off so fast. It sure wasn't my top speed: having someone who was maybe double my weight in my arms slowed me down. But it was nice to feel the wind at my face, the ground under my feet, the steady power in my legs as my feet hit the ground.

 

"This isn't a good idea!" N shouted, barely audible. "What if there is a train today?"

 

"You said there wouldn't be!"

 

"I didn't account for maintenance! Oh, If you see a path branching off, take it! That should take us into Nimbasa City."

 

I thought about that for a second as the wind rushed past. One city on a subway line. Specific.

 

"That's the hub, isn't it? Doesn't that make us more likely to get hit?"

 

"It makes us more able to get off the track before we see one moving! I don't know if you can get that far in a day, though!"

 

I rolled my eyes.

 

It took longer than I wanted, and it left me more winded than I was gonna let on, but eventually I noticed a change in the air and slowed enough to read the signs. Sure enough, they pointed to an emergency exit. I hopped off the track into the little tunnel, and made my way up the stairs. There was a door at the top of them, and N opened it.

 

Two of the weirdest looking guys I had ever seen were waiting for us.

 

One wore black and one wore white. That about summed it up. They had long coats with brown stripes. Weird looking guys.

 

"Mr. Harmonia," the one in black started, "I thought we agreed you would try to keep your friends from playing on the subway."

 

"Ingo, we needed a safe place to test his speed. It would draw too much attention from greedy trainers overland."

 

"I'll say!" offered the one in white. "That was faster than our fastest train, and one would assume your friend is faster without such heavy cargo. Amazing."

 

The twin in black shot his brother a glare.

 

"We're testing ways to get me to wherever new Team Plasma is operating without someone spotting Reshiram," N explained.

 

"As I suspected." The twin in black pulled out a packet of papers and handed them to N. "The schedule, including maintenance and tests. Quite a few militants have been taking the green and yellow lines lately."

 

"Thank you, Ingo, Emmet. And I trust my companion will stay a secret?"

 

I suddenly remembered I was there… and as I did, the guy in white locked eyes with me. "I've never met a Pokemon who wore shoes and gloves outside of the musical before." He smiled, but I felt like he was studying me. "I've battled many sandslash , and though that is the closest Pokemon to him, a sandlash he is not."

 

I weighed in my head. Sure, we were supposed to be a secret, but some guy I didn't know already knew me, and N seemed to trust these guys.

 

"I'm a hedgehog. There aren't any Pokemon where I'm from."

 

They were quiet for a moment, before the one in black commented, "Right. Just a Pokemon. Nothing out of the ordinary to see here, just an unusually fast Sandslash. Bravo on your training once again. If confronted by your former associates, I shall have to tell them you are still pushing wild Pokemon to limits trainers cannot hope to surpass." He winked.

 

His twin replied, "Quite right! At this rate you might be poised to reclaim your old title! This pokemon could outspeed most of your competition. I feel very excited."

 

N groaned. "I don't intend to pursue that."

 

"At the very least, you should consider going to Aspertia. The new teacher there is looking for fast Pokemon to demonstrate priority to his students." The white twin grinned. "Cheren's always been good to you, hasn't he?"

 

"The exit's that way," the black twin said, pointing. "You'll come out near the ferris wheel."

 

"It was nice meeting you guys!" I called after them.

 

And then out the door we went.We had to duck behind bushes and stay low, and I gathered at least some of that was because of N, not just me. We were staying so low that it surprised me when I heard him say, "This sure takes me back," and saw his bare hand point upward.

 

I looked up, and I saw a ferris wheel scratch at the sky. Or at least, that's how I think it looked to him. To me, it looked like a rickety old ferris wheel with huge windows on the cars.

 

"Sonic, ride it with me." He took my hand and started pulling me toward the gate.

 

It took everything I had not to cry out in surprise, and I stumbled over something in the path along the way.

 

He let go of me once we were inside the car, which was a relief, at least. The distant look on his face as he sat down across the car from me, not so much.

 

"N, what gives? What's up with the ferris wheel?"

 

He leaned up against the glass, looking out. "When I was trying to awaken Reshiram… my father's operatives were running from a very strong trainer, one I had talked to before. To help them get away, I asked her to ride this ferris wheel with me."

 

Oh boy. The girl again. This guy had it worse for her than Amy did for me, and everyone realized it but him.

 

"I don't get it, N. This girl beat you and crushed your dreams. You ran away from her… Why drag me on a ride that reminds you of her?"

 

He sighed, crossing his arms, making himself small. "That dream needed to be crushed."

 

I felt my nose wrinkling up. "I don't get it."

 

"Pokemon and humans being separate is the only way to ensure the safety of either…" He crossed his legs, but he pointed them toward me, which was a little weird. N's body language had been kinda confusing, but that was the point when I realized what a disconnect there was between body and mind. Didn't he realized he was flirting with me? Or was he flirting with the ghost of that girl in my place?

 

"But…?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation going. I felt a little guilty, but I couldn't let him notice what he was doing. Every so often he reminded me of Eggman, of Knuckles, of Shadow… I couldn't let him remind me of Amy, too.

 

"But that's no way to live. Humans and Pokemon improve each other's lives. I was raised alongside Pokemon who had been abused, but many, perhaps even most Pokemon who live with humans want to be there. A world where Pokemon live free alongside humans is possible when truth and ideals mix. It can never be perfect.. but it can never be at all without both." He looked across the car at me, strange blue eyes staring into mine, and my heart sped up in my chest. "Sonic… You were right. A hero of truth can't build an ideal world alone. It took her opposition to break me free of my father's control… and it will take your influence to show me the things I would not think to do… that must be done."

 

I gulped. "Long as you dont' get all goo-goo eyes, I'm ok with that."

 

He blinked. "Goo-goo eyes?"

 

I sighed. "N, dude, you're in love with her. It's a little weird when you start comparing us."

 

He stared at me a moment. His mouth stayed closed, but I could see his jaw fall a little inside it.

 

"What?" I asked.

 

He blinked. "I had no intention of making you uncomfortable. I… I know some humans find that idea unpleasant, but it is so foreign to me I can't even understand being upset."

 

I slapped myself in the face. "No, no, that's not what I mean. It'd be worse if you were a girl. There's this girl who follows me around back home, but she doesn't care whether I want her or not, and anyone getting like that makes me want to run away."

 

He nodded, understanding. "So then the idea that I might be attracted to you only bothers you for reminding you of her."

 

"Yeah. Well, it would be a little uncomfortable anyway." I smiled, sheepish. "It's always uncomfortable when someone feels something you don't feel back."

 

That got a rare grimace out of him, and he turned his legs away from me. Wondered what I triggered. "Well, I can assure you… I'm not attracted to Pokemon. But perhaps you're right… about that trainer, and my feelings for her."

 

I felt like the walls were closing in on me. It had gotten too creepy, and the only thing I knew how to do when someone had the hots for me was to run away.

 

Except… except in that dream. The girl liked me, but she didn't push, she didn't pry… and I acted like I didn't notice…

 

"Sonic, are you all right?"

 

I jumped, blinking. Suddenly N was on the other side of the car, near the open door, his hand extended toward me..

 

"I'm fine. Just thinking about a girl I used to know." I didn't take his hand, but I got up and followed him out. As we snuck away, I looked back at the ferris wheel. It did was pretty tall. And I hadn't looked out, taken in the view… I was too busy dealing with him. Too busy dealing with the ghost of someone who wasn't even there. I fought a shudder. I'd get back to that ferris wheel and see it sometime, without N and the ghost of Hilda to distract me.

 

After we saved the Pokemon.

 

He lead me outside of town to a little clearing, and we made our beds in a little hidden grotto.

 

When N lay down, Reshiram curled up on the other side of him. I went to the other side of the dragon, walked a couple steps, and sprawled out there.

 

"It's supposed to be quite cold tonight, Sonic." N said.

 

Geuh.

 

"That's why I'm on this side of the big fire dragon, dude," I lied.

 

Reshiram gave me an odd look, but then closed his eyes. His, her… I don't even know.

 

I lay there for a long time, wondering how much I've been running from.


	4. Rest

It was cold that night, but after all that weirdness, I didn't feel much like huddling up to anyone. I stayed the same distance from Reshiram I started at, and boy, did I come to regret it. I was in and out all night, and when I did sleep it was full of dark dreams of girls getting the better of me: Amy, Blaze, Shahra, Merlina, even friend with the hat. Not a good night.  
What was weird was that when I woke up, I felt weight all over me, and I felt oddly warm, although not warm enough. I was so tired I thought about just turning over and going back to sleep… but that weight was in my way. So I opened my eyes and looked down at myself.  
All I saw was red.

I started screaming and flailing, shouting… and what felt like a dozen little brown eyes all turned up to look at me.  
"Jeez dude, chill out!" One little voice shouted.  
"Ingrate!"  
"Wouldja rather freeze to death?"  
And then a cool voice, speaking quickly, from nearby. "I told you all he wasn't awake when he said yes."  
I glanced over in that direction. N was stroking Reshiram's head, and tears were flowing down the big dragons' face.  
"What's wrong?" I started to get up, but the monkeys—the Pansears—who were keeping me warm were too heavy.  
"Kyurem," N apologized, and he didn't need to say anymore. I didn't understand much of it, but somehow Reshiram, Kyurem, and the other dragon were linked. I could understand that. I remembered how I felt when Shadow…  
How I felt.  
Some of the Pansears had climbed off me, and when I tried to get comfortable with the rest, I realized my arms were stiff and sore. Maybe from carrying N? But I still felt cold even with a bunch of fire monkeys on top of me. Was I sick? I knew you couldn't catch a cold from getting cold… but any stress can make an illness worse…  
One of the little Pansears came up and patted my head. "It's ok, Sandslash guy. We'll keep you warm while Reshiram is busy. You can rest all you need to."  
But I glanced over. "But we have to help Kyurem."  
"We will accomplish nothing today," N commanded. It sounded so final… and his eyes were boring into me. Was it because of Reshiram? Or…  
One of the Pansears grabbed something off my arm and stuck it in his mouth. Ew. But I felt itchy where it had been. I…  
"What's happening to me?"  
"I think you picked up a minor illness young Pokemon often get, judging by the mites the Pansear have been picking off you all morning. It will pass, and when it is over, you will be stronger. Many Pokemon fight during the illness… but Pokemon improve just as much if they wait until they are well. Why chance it?"  
"'Cause there's no time to waste." I started to sit up, but a few of the Pansear tried and failed to push me down. I was stiff and sore and tired… but I sure wasn't weak. Enough of them had gotten off that I was able to sit up.  
"You're not even a Pokemon," Reshiram snapped through the tears, and I was so surprised I froze in place. All the Pokemon froze in place around me..  
"I… It's nice to hear someone say that, Resh."  
"You know I only speak the truth," he spat. "But no one here will feel better for you working while you are unwell, especially since N's lack of social graces and my pride may have weakened you to start with. You're going to let those Pokemon take care of you and you're going to rest as much as you can stand it, if for no other reason than to give me one less friend to worry about."  
I blinked. After a minute, I looked away, smiling. "Well… since ya put it that way, Reshiram.. Kinda hard to argue. I don't have to… stay completely still, do I?"  
The dragon rolled his eyes and looked away from me.  
"Just don't do anything stupid," the Pansear who touched my face scolded. "You have a lot of people asking about you, you know! Cobalion will have our heads if we let you get hurt!"  
I didn't recognize the name, but it made N's eyes widen.  
"Cobalion?"  
"The leader of the Swords of Justice," the Pansear explained. "He said there was talk of a blue Sandslash who was going to stop the humans in black, and if we saw him we should help him."  
I nodded. "Well, thanks. Hey, next time you see Cobalion, will ya do me a favor?"  
All the Pansears nodded eagerly, a few scurrying up closer to listen.  
"Tell him I said thanks, and I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm not a Sandslash."  
At that point, they all went crazy. There were so many questions I couldn't keep track of them all, and they finally made me realize my head hurt. It took a good ten minutes of shushing to get them to ask one question at a time. The next thing I knew, I was telling them my story. I'd gotten to the Death Egg by sunset, and took an early night. It was a great day. N said I'd probably be back on my feet tomorrow.  
It was the last great day I had for a while. I don't really remember the next couple. I lost almost an entire week to the fever. N said I kept asking for Merlina.  
He was about to take me to a Pokemon center, or a human hospital, the day I came out of it. He kept telling me to take it easy, but I didn't need much telling at first. By the time I was antsy to get moving again, he had made a day trip to a library and brought back tons of books. I spent another week being handed one every time I even thought about running, and I'm a sucker for books, so I read. When I wasn't reading, N was telling me about his family, and I was a captive audience. I kinda hoped I'd get to test my speed against the Shadow Triad he told me about; he said they were faster than any Pokemon, and gave me some tips on how to handle them.  
N couldn't help but speculate about why I got so sick. Humans were immune to that virus, he said, and Pokemon actually benefited from having it. It was completely foreign to me, so he thought I had no defenses against it. He was just starting to admit that I might not be a Pokemon.  
Two weeks after I got sick, someone goosed me right after I woke up. I was so scared it might be Amy that I took off running as fast as I could. I'd been sick, so I expected it to take me forever to hit the sound barrier, but I felt the telltale boom seconds early. I screeched to a stop, and found myself standing at a gate in the middle of a sandstorm.  
Took me a couple minutes to travel all the way back to Lostlorn Forest. I was laughing too hard to go fast. I kept my new top speed to myself.  
The next day, we decided to celebrate my recovery with a run to a place called Abundant Shrine.  
We took the light green subway line. I was careful not to go so fast this time. For one, that was just easier, although I didn't feel as tired as I expected. For two, well, N didn't like going that fast. And for three… I decided to limit myself to the speed the trains could do. That'd hide us better.  
I was thinking about that as we ran, and as we climbed out of the tunnel, I realized how strange it was that I was trying to stay hidden. Still, it was important. My little brush with the Pokerus had convinced N I wasn't a Pokemon, but nobody else saw that… and I ran so fast so soon after being so sick that I had my doubts. Plus, I remembered what the guy in Chargestone Cave had said about N being manipulated, and what N himself had said about his father's skill at using people. Saving Kyurem dependent on Ghetsis having no idea where we were.  
As we emerged into the sunlight, N led me over to the bottom of a waterfall. He handed me a plastic bag, and told me to put my shoes, socks and gloves in and seal it tightly. I fought not to shudder as I disrobed. He knelt by the water, and stuck his fingers in.  
"My friends… I want to show my friend the shrine, and he has no Pokemon to carry him up the waterfall. Would one of you be so kind as to help both of us there?"  
After a moment, a big orange and white fish with a horn popped out of the water, glaring at him. "We don't help humans we don't know around here!" She barked. She was a Seaking. I tried not to laugh at the difference between her sex and her name.  
"Not even the Hero of Truth?" N asked, a coy little smirk on his lips.  
"Huh. Thought you'd be taller. You know Sandslashes are weak to water, right?" the Seaking swam over to the shore, and N climbed onto her back. Another Seaking, this one with a larger horn, popped up and over to me. I climbed onto his back carefully, letting my feet sink into the water, and grabbed onto his horn.  
Then they swam into the waterfall.  
It was cold. It was wet. I held onto that guy's horn for dear life. I couldn't breathe. I was sure I got some into my lungs.

The Seakings were laughing as the one I was on bucked me onto the shore. N's eyes were sad, but his lip was curled up. And someone was screaming. That was me.

"Are you sure he's not a ground-type Pokemon, N?" asked the lady.

"Nah, he's real hot to the touch. Fire-type for sure."

They ragged on me for a few minutes, but I shrugged it off like I did the water. N was soaking wet, but it didn't seem to bother him. Then we made our way into the shrine.

The first thing I noticed is that there were children everywhere.

Human kids, Pokemon kids, you name it. Some of 'em too young to be out unsupervised. One kid who musta been two made a beeline for me and hugged me. Others mobbed N, asking if he was N, who's that Pokemon with him, all sorts of stuff.

He told them I was a shiny Sandslash, and my dad had been a Luxray.

Ookay.

We made our way through the empty fields, the throngs of kids, to a simple shrine. And a woman in a white labcoat was standing there facing it, holding a mirror up to the sky. N grabbed my naked hand and started to pull me toward the bushes, but then a pair of gold eyes locked on us, and she smiled. I'd never seen woman with such a big mouth. I don't mean talking, I mean her mouth was huge, like a guy's.

"Ah, hello! N, is it? Maybe I can pick your brain about this."

He stopped, hand still in mine. "That… is not the reaction I normally get."

She walked over, holding the mirror in her left hand, offering her right to shake. "Professor Burnet. I study Pokemon dreams. Tell me, do the Pokemon have any myths about Landorus or the reveal glass?"

He shook his head. "None unique to them, no."

"Well, I just asked because my research assistant was able to catch Landorus in the interdream zone, but he looked very strange… and when she had him look into this mirror, he changed back to the form we so often see in the story books," She looked into the mirror herself. "All I see in this mirror is that I look fabulous."

I smiled and nodded, pretending any of that made sense. I had no idea about the other stuff and… there are a lot of things I'd call a black bodysuit and white labcoat. Fabulous ain't one of 'em.

"Is your friend here some kind of Shaymin forme?" She looked me up and down. "He certainly has the bearing of a legendary Pokemon. You didn't find him in the Entralink, did you?"

"He's a hedgehog. Think of them as a subspecies of human from another reality."

"'Dreams are just another reality,'" she quipped. Something about the way she said it made me think it was a quote. I thought I heard a noise behind us, but I didn't dare look away.

"I do not think Sonic is the product of my dreams. He is every bit as real as Reshiram."

"And yet Reshiram was awakened by your dreams, wasn't he?" She turned and looked at me. "Would you take a peek into this mirror for me, Sonic? For science?"

I started to answer "No," when a voice behind me shrieked out half of my answer: "N!"

We all turned and looked… a woman was standing there, dripping and panting, hands on her knees, glasses askew on her nose. I didn't recognize her, but I could see that Burnet and N both did.

"Bianca," N finally spoke. "What are you doing here?"

"Cheren… told me… to find you!" she panted.

“How'd you know he'd be here?" I asked.

"Called leaders… Lenora… called subway… Ingo and Emmet…"

"Enough," N commanded, walking over to her. He took her by the shoulders, gentle. "Bianca, why did Cheren send for me?"

"Plasma… Frigate… Giant… Chasm!"

He released her, stepping back, seeming stunned. I started to wonder why Resh hadn't said anything… but N had put him in his ball when we started running.  
"N, this is what we've been waiting for. Come on." I walked over to him, ready to scoop him up.  
He looked at Burnet. "Protect Bianca until she can fend for herself." He glanced down at me. "Sonic. I'm ready when you are. We'll go over the top of Reverse Mountain."  
I nodded to the ladies and picked N up. He locked his arms around my neck, and I took off running. I knew my mind should have been more focused on what we were going to find at the Chasm, but I kept thinking about that mirror instead.


	5. Glaciate

It seemed like it took forever to get there. Going up this giant volcano slowed me down some, and so did the creepy vibe I got from a little house we passed along the way. Running close to water spooked me, too. But eventually we got to it… a huge crater in the ground.

N instructed me to use my speed to get on top of the crater's edge; most people took a little cavern in side, so he said this would help us stay under the radar.

Once over the edge, I was blown away. Inside was a huge forest… and deeper in, a huge… ship. It looked almost like a pirate ship, but I'd seen enough of Eggman's work to notice the propulsion. An airship. I did not like where that was going.

I saw a lot of people fighting down on the forest floor, so I slowed down so they would be less likely to hear me. At one low dip in the crater's side, N told me to hop down and run through the forest, so I did.

Little pink Pokemon with black ears and curly tails greeted us, but they couldn't keep up. Still, they must have sent word ahead, because after a few seconds of picking speed back up, some of them had begun to arrange themselves along the path, pointing the direction I needed to go. I pulled N tighter as I turned the sharp corners, and followed their stubby little pointed fingers until I found myself at the bottom of a gradual slope. I climbed it.

The inside was freezing, and I could hear something coming from a deeper chamber. N hopped out of my arms, and looked around the room, as if he expected something. Tons of Pokemon crawled of the woodwork toward him.

"My friends… Kyurem is in trouble.. and we are here to save him. But in my travels, I have heard stories of a trainer who is devoted to the same task. Ghetsis expects me to intervene, and has prepared for me. He may not expect a different foe. I wish to wait ouside the place where the confrontation will occur… but any who pass through this corridor will see me. Might some of your psychic friends be able to conceal me?"

I had to give it to N. He could be a great orator. I wasn't the only one who thought so, because these big metal things started coming out of the crowd. Some had two arms and floated, but others looked like some kinda four-legged insect made of blue steel. They started nudging N and me along. Once they pushed us up against a far wall by the door, they turned and faced away from us.. and for just a second, I couldn't see N. Then I stared off to my right, and focused, and sure enough, he was there.

N didn't seem fazed by it. He looked at me and grinned, but then turned toward the doorway.

I saw the kid pass us first… A goofy-looking girl with brown hair and shorts, marching along, a determined grin on that chubby little face. I started to move, but N reached over and stopped me.

"I will save that trainer if this proves too much to handle, but this is the trainer who has beaten Team Plasma every step of the way so far. We should show some faith." He turned to me. "If I must intervene, you need to stay here, and wait until you are sure I have nothing more to contribute. I will shout for you… or you will hear both Reshiram and all six this girl's Pokemon fall."

"I've never had to hold back like this, N."

"Neither have I."

It wasn't long that we stood there before the I heard ranting, and N started frowning. It was a man's voice, high and harsh.. Probably his father. I didn't hear the boyish voices N had told me to expect from the Shadow Traid, though. Finally, after a minute, I heard that voice shout "Glaciate," and a sound like ice crackling, a girl's scream… N opened his pokeball, climbed onto Reshiram, and flew off, shouting.

I tried to listen for what was happening within, but something else quickly got my attention.

A man walked into the cave, some kinda weird blue headgear wrapped around his face. Everyone else we'd seen pass by had ignored us, the blue Pokemon N called Metagross doing their job… but this guy looked me right in the eyes, and then approached.

"It seems I underestimated N," he commented to me, eyes briefly darting into the cavern. "I didn't expect him to bring this much backup."

He thought I was a Pokemon, so I crossed my arms and glared.

"I'm not here to fight. I'm here to see who wins. Your Metagross friends can stop protecting you, now. At this point I know better than to try and take a Pokemon out from under Ghetsis' son." He crossed over to the other side of the doorway and pressed his ear against the rock, listening.

Who was this guy? I scowled at him, and I was starting to growl when I heard a scream that was all too familiar. Not the scary guy's, not the girl's… it was N's. Before I could stop myself, the name slipped out of my mouth. I started running into the chamber, but the man with the weird headgear snagged me by the arm. Normally, I'd have wrenched out and kept going, but for some reason, I hesitated.

"That would be foolish. How do you know he can't do to you what he's done to Reshiram and Kyurem?"

  
"I'm not a Pokemon," I replied, but to be honest, I wasn't so sure.

  
"Be that as it may, how do you know how you'll be affected by the machine? What did your trainer tell you to do?"

  
I blinked. "He said to stay back here until I heard everyone fall, or until he shouted for me." Then I shook my head. "But he isn't my trainer!"

  
"Humans are superior tacticians to Pokemon, even legendary ones, and he's one of humanity's best." He tilted his head to the side, looking at me, grip tightening just a little on my arm. "And yet your ability to resist his commands, no matter how politely they're given, is even more extraordinary than your use of specific human language."

  
"I told you, dude, N's my friend, not my trainer."

  
A horrible screaming came out of the room…  the old man's. Ghetsis'. I let it go, relaxing a little, even with that guy's hand on my arm.

  
"Suit yourself," he let go of me. "Your friend has failed, but Rosa has succeeded. The potential of Pokemon will be unlocked with love instead of brutality… And your trainer is going to need all the love you can return to him… he's more Pokemon than man in many ways, just like you're more man than Pokemon." He turned and started walking out of the cave. This time, I reached over and grabbed his arm, but something about the movement felt strange and wrong to me.

  
"Wait. Dude, what's your name? How do you know so much?"

"My name is Colress," he boasted, turning back to me. "And I'm a scientist who studies the full potential of Pokemon. If you want to unlock yours… I might have more ideas than you'd expect. I'll be taking the ship somewhere warm and wet. Come find me. And bring N with you… I'd like to meet him."

He wrenched his arm out of my hand, and somehow I found I didn't have it in me to stop him. He walked out of the cavern, and the Metagross started nudging me back over to the wall.

Then N flew out on the back of a battered looking Reshiram, held out his hand, and beckoned.

Before I realized what I was doing, I was on Reshiram's back. N was in tears, and my head was throbbing.

  
N cried for a long time. He was inconsolable. We flew for a while, and he just bawled. I could tell Reshiram was upset too, but not half as much. I watched the Pokemon we passed in the air, since no one was talking. It was mostly those Swan things and birds called Tranquils, but at one point we passed a big clay ghost thing going the opposite direction, and I thought I saw a guy on the back. After a while, after we landed at this big gate in the mountains, Resh finally told me about what happened: Reshiram's defeat, his fusion with Kyurem, and their fight against Rosa. She won, of course.

  
"Being one again wasn't really the problem. It's not like we initially split for our own reasons, " Reshiram explained. "It was how it happened, and what we were made to do. I wouldn't mind trying it again, with N and that child supervising. But…" Reshiram reached over and brushed a claw through N's hair. "N can't bear the suffering of others. And he's not used to feeling so powerless, either."

  
I wanted to ask him about how weird I was acting in the cavern, about how that Colress guy bossed me around, but I thought better of it.

  
"N… buddy…" I started approach him.

"Leave me," he snapped, his voice dark. Then he took a deep breath, and explained more softly: "You were right, and I was wrong. A hero of ideals perceived the truth more clearly than I. Soon, I will be able to accept your counsel…. but for now, I'd like to be alone with my shame and my friend."

Ouch. Like I'm not.

"Sure. Meet back up here some other time, or what?"

"No. There's a castle in the mountains… the locals can lead you there. That's where you will find me. Go. Make your own path. This world should be safe, now."

He turned away. I looked up at Reshiram, who frowned.

"All this time you've seen the world of Pokemon through our eyes," Reshiram explained, patting N's head. "He may be motivated by guilt, but the idea is true. How can you ever fight for a cause you only understand from one angle? That is what put N in this situation to begin with. Go see Unova, and talk to Pokemon and humans for yourself."

I nodded, and gave a little wave. "All right; you guys know how to find me if ya need to. Good luck."

And then I took off running.

I blinked a lot as I went. I told myself it was because I was going faster than I normally do on a casual run, but I'll be honest: it was a lot more than that. I'd just been rejected by the only friend I had in this world. I felt weird, physically and emotionally, ever since we set foot in that cave. I'd been threatened by countless people here. I had no idea how I was going to go home, or even what artifact I was going to have to find or enemy I was going to have to stop. And I was bone tired. The sun was setting, and I'd been up all day.


	6. Echoed Voice

By the time I stopped, I was back at that shrine again. The two women, the one with the big mouth, and the blonde with the glasses, were still there, chatting in the dark. A big pink thing floated next to the blonde, nuzzling her.

 

My arrival made some noise, so they both turned to see me. "I take it it didn't go well?" the professor asked.

 

"Oh… I didn't even have to get into it," I explained, feeling like I was lying. "N and that kid saved the day."

 

"But he's not with you?" The blonde bit her lip, worried.

 

"He had some stuff to take care of. Said I should see Unova for myself." I smiled, hoping it didn't look as fake as it felt. "There's a lot of people to talk to." I was a little nervous talking to the blonde, but she was already treating me more like an adult than any of the other humans I'd met, N included, and she already knew about what I apparently was.

 

"It sure is fun to travel, but it can be pretty scary to travel by yourself," she offered. "You must be really tough if he sent you off by alone, but that doesn't mean people aren't going to bother you."

 

I felt a chill creep down my spine, and I tried not to shudder along with it. "Well, they have to catch me first. And I'm faster than any Pokemon I've met."

 

"Could I take your picture in my Pokedex?" She asked. "I'm Bianca, and I'm Professor Juniper's research assistant. This would be great for our research on the kinds of Pokemon in Unova." She had a heck of a smile.

 

"Not too bright, this one," the pink thing apologized, nuzzling her. I tried not to frown, because Bianca didn't react, meaning she didn't understand it.

 

"I'm Sonic, and I'd prefer not to have my picture taken." I offered my hand to her, and tried to banish memories of "Bartleby the Scrivener" from my mind. "The less people know about me, the less they'll try and catch me."

 

She had a really light handshake. "Oh right! I'm sorry. So are you native to the region? You can tell me that much, right?"

 

Burnet rolled her eyes next to Bianca. Burnet seemed kinda spacey to me, so if she was rolling her eyes at Bianca, the kid had to have a reputation. She wasn't being ditzy enough to justify that kinda reaction.

 

"No. I'm from a world where there are no Pokemon: Just humans and people like me. We all speak the same language, and we're all more or less the same."

 

"Oh, you're not from this world?" The blonde reached into her bag. "Then you'll need some information on all the Pokemon…"

 

"I read some books from a place called Nacrene Library…"

 

"They won't have everything. You need it at your fingertips." She pulled out a little device, and offered it to me. "Take a Pokedex. I'll say I dropped it. I'm kind of air-headed, so everyone will believe that, and no one will be all that mad."

 

Burnet gave a low whistle. She seemed impressed. But Bianca was just smiling at me, holding out the little phone-looking thing like it were the most obvious thing in the world.

 

I took it. "Thanks Bianca. That's really nice of you." I cradled it in my hands, looking at it. I didn't want to let on how touched I was, partly 'cause I wanted to seem tough, and partly 'cause I felt too touched for… me. Why was I so emotional? Why did I want human companionship so badly? Why did it hurt me so badly that N had sent me away?

 

"So where are you staying? I don't see any shiny stuff behind your eyes, so I'm guessing you sleep at night. After all, you said you were basically human…"

 

…Air-headed. Uh huh. Sure. She was like a human Amy: way, way smarter than she let on.

 

"Oh, I got a place in mind," I said. "I should get to it… gotta time it just right with the trains. But it sure was nice meeting you ladies. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you."

 

"It was nice meeting you, Sonic!" Bianaca cheered. "If you ever need anything, I live and work in Nuvema Town!"

 

"And you can find me in Castelia City; I've been staying with Fennel. Come over for ice cream some time!"

 

I nodded to them, and ran off again. I found myself under the ferris wheel, skidding to a stop. I started to walk toward Lostlorn to stay with the Pansears there, but my foot kicked something and sent it rolling. It looked like a phone… so picked it up and went on my way. My old friends in the grotto were happy to see me, and I nodded off. I didn't remember my dreams, but I knew they were nightmares.

 

I was awakened by a horrible, musical beeping.

 

"N?" asked, forgetting he wasn't there.

 

The beeping came again.

 

"It's a cross-transceiver, you fool," barked an unfamiliar voice. "Are you going to answer it?"

 

Sleepily, I looked for the source of the beep, until I found a little phone… the device I'd picked up the day before. I realized it had a camera on it when I saw the weird little lens, so I pointed that away from me, and started pressing buttons.

 

"Um, hello?" came a soft voice from the other end.

 

"Yeah?" I muttered, rubbing my eye.

 

"Um, I don't know who you are, and I can't see you.. but I'm the owner of the Cross-transceiver you've just answered. But even if you looked I'm using my old one, and it's audio-only, so you can't see me."

 

"That's fine dude," I muttered, even though I knew the person on the other end was a woman. Probably human. "I take it ya want this thing back."

 

"Yes, but I'm not somewhere where I can come get it right now. Could you hang onto it for a bit? I'll call you when I'm near where I dropped it."

 

"Hey, no problem. I can be anywhere in Unova in the drop of a hat."

 

"You're sure you don't mind?" She sounded shocked. "I… My name's… Yancy." She hesitated a little, but I was too tired to really make sense of it then.

 

"Sonic. I'm Sonic. Nice to meet ya."

 

"It's nice talking to you, too. When work calms down, I'll come get it. Please take care of it until then."

 

"Sure. Don't work too hard, Yancy."

 

"Heh. Well, thanks again. Bye."

 

I heard a click on the other end, then a low chuckle behind me.

 

"Not too bright are you, Sandslash? Now you're going to have to show yourself to her to deliver the thing."

 

Finally I turned my head over my shoulder, to look at the source of the snooty voice. I knew it was a Pokemon, but I was surprised when I saw him. He was tall, and kinda noble-looking. He walked on all fours. And he was glaring at me with the nastiest look in his eyes.

 

"I've spent weeks listening to Pokemon up and down this region talk about the Blue Sandslash who will save the Pokemon from human oppression," he lectured. "The blue Sandslash who acts as the Hero of Truth's courier in his quest to fight Team Plasma. The fastest thing in Unova. All I see is an idiot, a Pokemon who speaks human speech without half the intelligence of one."

 

I blinked. "Geez, no wonder everyone's afraid of you, Cobalion. You're about as inviting as a vat of acid."

 

I half expected him to charge at me, but I got a smirk. "I didn't know your ability was slow start."

 

"Pretty sure it'd be Speed Boost, actually."

 

He tilted his head to the side. "You've been studying Pokemon."

 

"Reading. I like to read, when I'm not running or saving people."

 

He shook his head, changing the subject. "I wanted to thank you for your actions. I'm not fond of your friend, but he was instrumental in flushing out Ghetsis. Now that Team Plasma has been neutralized again, it's relatively safe for wild Pokemon here. I've heard you intend to start a war on Pokeballs, but that would hurt wild Pokeon before it'd help them."

 

I crossed my arms. "You really just wanted to tell me not to mess with the pokeballs thing, and go back about my business."

 

"The kind of force one would need to put a stop to the practice of using Pokeballs would surely bring retribution onto unaffected wild Pokemon. We fight hard enough to keep the humans out of our homes; as we speak my colleague Terrakion is hunting an especially meddlesome opportunist back at Kyurem's cavern, one who showed up within hours of Team Plasma's departure. Imagine how difficult it would become to protect our homes if humanity had something to be angry about."

 

I stood up, stretching. I wanted to run right to help his friend with the opportunist, but I didn't want to go back to that cavern until I understood exactly what went wrong there. No sense walking into a trap. I changed the subject. "Oh, we're ok right here, so nevermind those other people suffering. That's responsible."

 

He growled at me. "How naive. Humans can't be stopped, and as a race they can't be reasoned with. A select few are respectable: I briefly worked with N's desired mate to help her get to a point where she coud oppose him, and Terrakion is rather partial to a bold trainer from Aspertia. But as a race, they're foolish, angry creatures who lash out if you try to take from them anything they've stolen."

 

Well, I found this world's Shadow.

 

"I think you're the one who's naive, Cobalion," I snapped. I walked over to him, closer. "I just had to sit in the next room and listen to Team Plasma try to combine Reshiram and Kyurem together and control them. Do you really think you're safe if some team decides they need legendary power, but going after the dragons would get N and Hilda's attention?" I crossed my arms. "Plus, aren't you all about protecting Pokemon habitats? What if people want to develop a place like this, but you're guarding it?"

 

"Then I will fight like I always have."

 

Definitely Shadow.

 

"I have this friend, Cobalion. He reminds me a lot of you. He sure sounds like you. A bunch of scientists made him. But the government was scared of him. Everyone thought the government might take him… but they're a good government, so they won't hurt me, right? First they tried to capture him and the other experiment. They failed. Then they killed all the scientists who made them. And when that was all done and over with? They killed a little girl who'd seen it all. The only survivor was a five year old boy. All human, except my friend."

 

He glared back at me. "Your point, Sandslash?"

 

"I'm not a Sandslash. I'm a Hedgehog. And my point is this: You say they're so angry and unreasonable. You don't know how far they'll go! You can't rest easy until every last Pokemon is free from Pokeballs. You say I'm naive, but I can see it getting worse before it gets better whether I do something or not."

 

He thought about that for a minute. I scowled at him. There was a lot more I was thinking, but I didn't dare say it. I knew the guy for five minutes. I wasn't about to tell him what he wanted, even if I was pretty sure I knew what it was.

 

He turned away from me, then looked over his shoulder, back at me. "Perhaps I misjudged you, Sonic. You're hopelessly idealistic… but perhaps naive isn't the word. I can't help you on your quest to free Pokemon from humans, but there are Pokemon who can. Victini is a herald of Victory; whatever human possesses him shall win all his battles. Uxie, Azelf, and Mespirit have power over human feelings. Cresselia can influence dreams. And should you ever meet the other hero of ideals and her partner, Zekrom… I have no doubt they'll agree with you,"

 

Cobalion ran off, leaving me with more questions than answers. I tried to think of what to do, or where to go…

 

Castelia City was closer than Nuvema Town.


	7. Chatter

Running to the city was easy enough, although I wished I had some goggles in the desert.

 

Running THROUGH it was hard.

 

There were people everywhere… I had to sneak through alleys and under bushes, and I had no idea where to find Burnet. I tried to make sense of signs I could see, but I couldn't get close enough to read some of 'em. Most of 'em were out on the crowded streets.

 

Eventually I saw something promising: A building with a huge sign out front. Still, to get to the door, I'd have to go out in front, where people might see me. I made my way around the place, but I didn't see any open windows. Finally, I gave up, and walked onto the street, angling for the front door.

 

"HEY!" came a surprisingly deep voice. I looked to the sound, but I noticed most of the people passing by ignored it.

 

There was a boy there wearing red and blue, with blue-black spiky hair. "Sandslash! I told you to stay close to me!" he marched over and grabbed my hand. I was about to pull away, but he gave it just a little squeeze, and I decided to play along. Still, I watched his other hand, making sure it didn't go to his Pokeball belt.

 

"Sand." I muttered, glaring, trying to play the part.

 

"Don't give me that look. Come on." He gave my arm a gentle tug, and I followed him.

 

The people in there glanced our way; a few looked shocked. He snapped, "And no, you can't have a massage from the nice lady until you let me wash that stupid paint off."

 

Clever. He pulled me into an elevator. And when the door closed, he spoke.

 

"All right, level with me: Do you have a trainer or not? Because running around a city like that is just asking for trouble."

 

I looked him in the eyes. Red eyes. "I'm not even a Pokemon, dude." 

 

"Well, you're a Pokemon until bad people decide you aren't. Coming into the city like this was a bad idea. What are you even doing here?" The elevator dinged, and he frantically pressed the "close door" button.

 

"I came to talk to Professor Burnet."

 

He grinned. "You're in luck. I'm here to see Professor Fennel."

 

"Huh. Imagine that."

 

"I'm Hugh." He held out his hand again.

 

"Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog." I shook it. Strong grip. Gentler than I expected.

 

"I don't know who'll be in that room, so play it cool and act like you're mine." But then he smiled at me. "But as long as you're with me… no one's putting you in a Pokeball."

 

He pressed the button on the elevator, and it opened to the sound of laughter. Girls laughing. There were machines everywhere, wires and tubes, all hooked up to… a bed? Professor Burnet and a woman with a flower in her long hair were sitting on it, while a young girl with brown hair, and a woman with longer hair were sitting on a desk. They all had ice cream cones. 

 

They must not have noticed us at first, because the woman with the flower teased Burnet, "I think I see your roots~"

 

Burnet frowned, adjusting her goggles on her head. "I don't dye. You're being ridiculous."

 

"Hi there. Hugh, was it?" the little girl said.

 

Then all eyes were on us. "Oh, hi Hugh! What can I help you with?" asked the woman with the flower.

 

Burnet winked at me, but said nothing.

 

"I… I have a question about human dreams."

 

"Well, I'm no expert on those, but go on?" She hopped off the bed and approached, leaving Burnet there, licking her ice cream.

 

"Well… Last night I brought my sister's pu-Liepard home to her… She had a dream about a Zoroark. And it said… 'Soon.'" Hugh looked down. "It seemed ominous to me. She had it before Liepard and I got home. And she had it again today. Can humans' dreams be real?"

 

Burnet laughed. "If we could answer that question, we wouldn't be working out of a lab in a Castelia City high rise." She bit the top off her ice cream.

 

"Burnet!" the lady Hugh was talking to, whom I can only guess was Fennel, blushed a bit. "But she's right, Hugh. We know human dreams can correlate to what humans are thinking, but we haven't been able to link them with outside events in any reliable way. Some psychic humans may have premonitions, but they're not reliable enough for me to say your sister's dream means anything outside of herself."

 

"Maybe she doesn't believe your really brought her Liepard home?" the brown-haired woman offered.

 

"Do we have enough ice cream for the boy and his Sandslash?" Burnet asked.

 

"Cheren and Bianca bailed on us," the little girl said. "I'll just give them theirs." She scurried out of the room.

 

"That looks like an interesting Sandslash forme you have there, Hugh. My name is Dr. Burnet, and I study the interdream zone. You caught him in the Entralink, didn't you?" 

 

"I did."

 

"Can I examine him?"

 

He looked at me, and I flipped him a twitch of a smile.

 

"Maybe, but he's kinda shy. Especially around girls." He glanced at Fennel and the woman with brownish hair.

 

"Kris and I will go help Amanita with the ice cream." Fennel nodded to her, and the two women left.

 

Burnet watched them go, and then laughed. "Sonic. What brings you here?"

 

"I dunno who else to ask. I didn't know Bianca, and I don't know this guy either, but I don't 'think I'm gonna get you alone. I need to know everything you know about Giant Chasm."

 

"I'd excuse myself," Hugh offered, "But it'd look strange. Sonic, I don't catch Pokemon who doesn't want to be caught. Team Plasma brainwashed my sister's Purrloin with Pokeballs."

 

"Is that the only way? With Pokeballs?"

 

"Not in the least." Burnet cleared her throat. "A madman from Sinnoh was able to control Pokemon using pineal extracts from the Lake Trio a few years back. Then there's capture styluses, though they're wholly temporary. And a scientist by the name of Colress has been working on creating Pokeball like obedience effects without the reduction in power that comes with Pokeballs."

 

"He was at the cave!" I cupped my hand over my mouth, realizing I was getting loud. Then I offered more quietly, "I'm no Pokemon, but I felt weird inside that cave in the chasm. It was hard to make decisions. It reminded me of this time I was posessed by an ancient demon, only listless insteada grumpy." I didn't need to mention the turning into a werehog part.

 

Hugh blinked. "When I was looking for Purrloin on that ship… on my way in, I passed a guy heading out with this freaky looking cane. And my Unfezant… The guy turned his head. I don't understand Pokemon or anything, but he's seemed ruffled ever since."

 

"Reshiram said Ghetsis controlled him with some kind of cane…"

 

"A Colress device. Sonic, you were responding to the Colress device." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, dear, but you really are a Pokemon."

 

"I don't know. I lost focus there too," Hugh offered. "I thought it was because I finally found Liepard, but I don't know. I'm a pretty angry guy. Why didn't I want to unleash my rage on them? Maybe Colress accidentally evened things out."

 

I started to speak, but suddenly something cold was in my hand. I looked over, and saw a cone in my hand. I looked up, and the woman with the flower in her hair smiled at me. "Amanita's keeping the clerk busy. But you two should be more careful. I could tell there were two male voices, and none of them were saying Sandslash."

 

After I got over the shock of Fennel putting an ice cream in my hand, we all sat down and got to talking.

 

Fennel said she was sure Amanita, the little girl who wasn't actually a little girl, couldn't keep the clerk out of the room all that long. 

 

"It's not that I don't trust Kris to keep the secret of a talking Pokemon under wraps," Fennel apologized. "I just don't know her yet; she's only been working for us a few months. And I could tell you were nervous around us. But trust me, I've seen stranger things."

 

I licked the ice cream cone. The flavor tasted familiar… it brought back memories. Memories of aching and cold, and soothing voices, N's and Reshiram's, telling me it was going to be all right… I thought better than saying something, but I couldn't help but shudder.

 

"Don't eat it too fast! Brain freeze." Burnet chirped. I wanted to glare; she had no idea.

 

"So what did I miss?" Fennel sat back down next to Burnet.

 

"We were talking about Colress machines. It seemed Team Plasma had one at the Chasm, but Hugh here thinks they might be able to affect humans."

 

"Oh? Well how would that work?" She brought her hand up to her mouth.

 

Hugh shrugged. "I'm not sure how disoriented I was can be completely chalked up to the surprise I got with my sister's Liepard. Sonic and some of my Pokemon acted weird in that area, too."

 

"I think the real question would be whether N was more docile there or not," Fennel took a bite of her cone. "He can talk to Pokemon. It stands to reason he's more like them than most people are."

 

"Were there any psychic sensitives on hand to pick it up?" Burnet pulled out some kinda phone and started tapping away at it. "Sabrina was on the other side of Unova, wasn't she?" 

 

I felt like the room was spinning, but it'd look weird if I didn't finish the cone, so i took a bite. That really did give me brain freeze, but I gritted my teeth and kept up a smile through the pressure in my head, the nausea, the malaise. It was like hanging out with Chip all over again, only I couldn't just offer someone in the room the rest of mine. Actually, it was a lot like being with Chip. The whole werehog thing had given me a lot of doubts about what exactly I really am, and this was just stirring them back up. Could I really be a Pokemon? Was I really that vulnerable?

 

"What are we going to do about this?" Hugh stood up as he popped the last piece of his cone into his mouth. I don't know how he ate the cone that fast without keeling over. "You can't just keep stuff like that a secret. Even if they get rid of the thing Team Plasma used, someone will find out about it and make their own."

 

"I'll talk to my friends in Orre," Burnet offered. "They know quite a bit about controlling Pokemon against their will, especially in unorthodox ways. Perhaps I could get Rui to come out here and look at auras." Then she turned to me. "Rui's psychic. She sees auras. What a Pokemon is like."

 

I nodded. It didn't make a lot of sense to me; aura seemed to mean a lot of diferent things in this world.

 

Still, something must have seemed off about my response, because Hugh of all people asked, "Sonic, are you all right?"

 

"I'm bone tired," I exaggerated. "I was out until late making sure N was all right, and Cobalion woke me up this morning to be a total stick in the mud."

 

"Cobalion?!" Burnet jumped out of her seat. "But Cobalion is said to appear mainly to humans… ones whose aim is to keep Pokemon and their habitats safe." She cocked her head to the side. "So Pokemon tend to perceive you as human, but you understand them, and seem like a Pokemon to humans…"

 

As she finished talking, Fennel about squealed. "Oh oh, if you're tired, would you try sleeping in my machine so I can see your dreams?"

 

"That's a stupid idea!" Hugh snapped. "Your clerk you don't trust is still in the other room! You're just going to have him go to sleep here?"

 

"It's not as if she hasn't already seen him," Fennel offered, smiling.

 

"He shouldn't even be in the city in the first place," Hugh argued. I just watched them, shaking my head. I didn't feel like trying to shout over them.

 

"I think we're forgetting something," Burnet offered sternly. I took a bite of my ice cream.

 

"What?" Came both voices.

 

"I think we forgot to ask Sonic what he wants."

 

I smiled, trying to turn on the charm. "Aww come on, Burnet. I was gonna wait until they decided on somethin' and say no." That seemed to kill the tension in the room some, so I continued. "I wanna make a plan and get out of here before Kris gets back. When Pokemon are free, Fennel, then I'll help test your machine."

 

There was a voice in the other room, and we all tensed.

 

"Here's the plan," Burnet walked over toward the door. "I'm going to do all the research I can on different Pokemon control methods. Fennel's not going to; it'd raise too many questions for her clerk. Hugh, be a dear and ask your friend what happened at the Chasm, will you? And Sonic… just keep in touch." She handed me a a few business cards. "My contact information and Fennel's. We can get Bianca to get ahold of Hugh if need be. A dear friend of hers runs the gym in Hugh's hometown."

 

I took the cards and slid them into my glove. "Thanks, Burnet. Me, I'm gonna try and figure out how pokeballs actually effect a Pokemon. I'm gonna go watch someone get captured."

 

Then I waved, and I stepped into the elevator to a chorus of goodbyes. As I rode down, I shuddered. Maybe it was from weeks of eating nothing but forage and berries. Maybe it was from nerves. But that ice cream felt heavy in my stomach, and I didn't feel like doing much of anything except escaping the city. 

 

I went back out the way I came, running a bit more slowly through the desert. It didn't feel really great against my skin, and I knew I had to get to shelter, so I picked up pace and made my way to Nimbasa City. The specter of the Ferris Wheel loomed over me; I didn't want to think about N. So I went the other way, out of town, toward the big orange bridge that lead to the next city. 

 

I could not believe who I saw there.


	8. Destiny Bond

Stocky figure, black coat, dark hat… And that unmistakable accent. The guy from Chargestone Cave, the guy who'd said all those things about N, was talking to a lady with brown hair in an apron. He handed her some money, and she gave him a handful of something.

 

I stood there, dumbstruck. It was that guy! And he was walking toward me, not looking. But then he locked eyes with me, and he smiled. If I were a trainer, we would have battled. But I'm not a trainer.

 

"Ah, getting a little braver are we, little Pokemon?" There was a sneer in his voice, but something in his eyes was softer. He tilted his head. "How nice to see you again. I thought I passed you on my way to investigate Giant Chasm.. Though, you are looking a bit blue…"

 

I frowned and fought the urge to throw a pun back. I realized I was standing a little bit sideways toward him, my right foot a little behind my left. "Are you this abrasive to everyone, or just people who could knock you into next week?"

 

He laughed. "I'd like to see you try. Actually, don't; I don't want to listen to a twenty minute lecture on the hearts of Pokemon from your effeminate friend." He shook his head and started rifling through his pocket. I tensed, shifting my weight onto my back foot.

 

"He's off doing his own thing," I explained, immediately regretting it. "I'm looking into my own leads on how to free the Pokemon."

 

"And I was right, wasn't I?"

 

It took me a second to respond. My first impulse was to smart off at him.. but he was completely right. He'd tried to warn me, and I hadn't done enough with the knowledge. "Yeah," I nodded. "Yeah, you totally were."

 

He pulled something out of his pocket… a little green berry. I remembered N giving me some… Lum berries. Berries that can heal just about anything. He held it out to me. "You really don't look as well as you did last time I saw you, Sonic. This might help, but you really ought to be checked out by a Pokemon Nurse."

 

I took it, deciding not to try it until I could run it past a person I liked more. Maybe that Bianca, if I could find her. "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not a Pokemon; don't wanna give anyone the wrong idea. They might try to…" Then it hit me. What had I told the others I was gonna do? "Hey, you're not out here to catch Pokemon, are you?"

 

He blinked. "As a matter of fact, I'm hoping to catch a Sandile for the Type Expert Tournament." He grinned. "I promise I won't throw any Pokeballs at you if you tag along."

 

I considered. He seemed kinda shady, but he'd also been a lot nicer to me than a lot of the people I'd spent time with. He was the only person aside from N who'd tried to warn me about N's dad, too. Can't really argue with that.

 

"I'll follow. Just to be on the safe side." I smiled.

 

"It's quite a hike. I'm afraid I'm not as fast as you." He started walking toward the city. "And you'll need some protective gear if you're going to go out there. We'll stop in Join Avenue to requisition some supplies, and maybe a hot meal."

 

If I were being honest with myself, I'd have admitted he had me right there. It had been weeks since I'd eaten a hot meal. But I kept up acting like I wasn't going to go along with everything. "So you can slip me something and ball me."

 

"If you're that paranoid, I can send you over to a kiosk yourself with a note and some money. Regardless, you're going to need to act like you're my new Sandslash. Which means that when we're where people might hear us, you'll be safer if you can speak as a Pokemon would."

 

I rolled my eyes, mimicking the Pokemon. "Slash." Then I slipped back into my own voice. "But are you sure that's a good idea? N acted like even being seen with him would be bad."

 

"N maybe a stronger trainer, but he's a vulnerable man. I was the strongest gym leader of my region for the longest time, and I have a reputation for being down-to-earth. If you appear to be mine, very few people would make a move on you. Those who would likely have the resources to track you when you're alone, so at least I can act as another set of eyes."

 

Gym leader, huh? I thought about that, frowning. Gym leader. Down to earth. Strongest in his region. "For the longest time," as in not any more.

 

When I put the pieces together, everything in my body felt like it was trying to seize up and make itself as small as possible, and I hoped I could stomach that hot meal… if I weren't too busy running from this guy to get one.

 

"So then you have to be that Giovanni guy. The head of Team Rocket."

 

He grinned, but he looked a little concerned. "You've been doing your research then, Sonic. But I'm its former head. I have long since given up that life."

 

I shook my head. Geez, N was rubbing off on me. "You want me to let you buy me a meal after you basically took over a whole country? Dude, you got some nerve!" I was grinning, a challenge in my eyes, but inside I was heartbroken. I wanted a hot meal. I wanted to see someone nice catch a Pokemon. I wanted to talk to someone who knew what was going on…

 

"I do have some nerve. That's how I took my mother's weak little gang and turned it into a criminal empire." He stopped walking and stared at me, almost growling. "And I don't feel a great deal of remorse for most of the things we did. Certainly none of the things I've ordered."

 

"That's really reassuring, Giovanni. I totally want you at my back." I rolled my eyes.

 

He frowned at me. "After I disbanded Team Rocket the first time, I found out some of my agents had murdered a mother Pokemon who was protecting her young. Then my former underlings decided to use science to force under-leveled Pokemon to evolve, unbidden by me. In subsequent years, no less than two environmental terror groups, a group devoted to horrific experimentation on Pokemon, a religious cult bent on destroying the world, and a religious cult that worked Pokemon to death under the guise of freeing them…" He took a deep breath, turning away from me. "They did all of those terrible things, nearly destroyed my world, caused so much suffering for what? And they did it all in my model, in the image of my organization."

 

I wanted to mouth off and keep pushing, but I couldn't. He had been so articulate seconds before, speaking like a king in a storybook… and now he was stumbling, talking like a normal person. His voice was so blank, but I could tell he was trying to sound calm. He was showing real remorse. And after all those years of being the villain, maybe he was finally trying to play nice…

 

"So, quit worrying and be the guy who helps me save the Pokemon." I stepped forward, turning to face him and walking backwards. "I'll take that hot meal, we'll catch a Pokemon so I can see how nasty these Pokeballs really are, and we'll figure out where to go from there." I gave him my most charming smile… then he gave me his, and followed.

 

I could feel people's eyes on me as we walked through Nimbasa City. Walked, My head held high. I didn't like having someone who used to be evil at my back like that, but I didn't see much choice. If he was sincere, people not trusting him might push him back toward evil. I didn't need that on my conscience. I didn't like the way people were staring at me, either.

 

The person who bothered me the most was a guy about my age with black hair. He was heading toward the Ferris wheel, and as we passed, he just stopped, turned toward me, and grinned. Then he looked behind me, and I could see all the color drain from his face. He adjusted his tie and approached Giovanni. I turned around.

 

"What kind of Pokemon is that, Giovanni?" he asked.

 

"He's a Sandslash." Giovanni glared down at him, sneering.

 

"Do I look like an idiot? He's no Sandslash." The guy squatted down to me, his tie hanging in front of him. "What kind of Pokemon are you?"

 

I wanted to answer that I wasn't, but instead I looked up at Giovanni. His brow was narrowed, but he was smiling. He seemed frustrated, but not all that worried.

 

"No, don't look at him right now. Look back at me." The guy grabbed my hand, which got my attention, and I looked back at him, glaring as hard as I could. "Do you want to be with this man?"

 

I nodded. He looked surprised.

 

"Of course, unless he told you, you'd have no idea of why I'd even ask a question like that…"

 

I jerked my hand out of his, and whispered. "He told me everything. Now quit blowing my cover."

 

The man's eyes widened, but he nodded and stood, turning to Giovanni. "He has very small claws for a Sandslash. I see why you've put gloves on him. I hope you don't plan to use him in the Tournament; Pokemon have to conform to breed standard, color aside."

 

"Of course not," Giovanni sneered. I felt him walk closer, and he put a hand on my shoulder. I tried not to shudder, but on some level it was kinda nice. "I use him mostly for catching other Pokemon. Those small claws aren't such a problem when the swipe is false."

 

The word "use" wasn't so nice. I made a face.

 

"Maybe sometime you could bring him by Aspertia." He glanced down at me. "I think my students could use a lesson on breed conformity and league standards. And I think my friend Hugh would find him interesting."

 

I felt my ears pick up. This guy knew Hugh? He was a teacher?

 

"Yes, perhaps sometime we shall have to do that. But for now, Sonic and I must really get going. It's my understanding that he was recently in the company of a different friend of yours. While Mr. Harmonia's conversational skills are apparently superb, his hospitality is quite lacking."

 

He nodded. "You know, I was only going to go on the Ferris wheel, and it's getting late. I'll feed him while you get supplies, if you'd like. I promise I won't take him anywhere he doesn't want to go."

 

I glanced back at Giovanni, alarmed. Who the hell was this guy? I was getting sick of getting passed around from human to human.

 

"Sonic, Cheren is more than trustworthy. He helped stop Team Plasma not once, but twice. I daresay he's more trustworthy than I am, which is why he's so eager to separate us. If you'd like to grab a bite with him, I would feel no need to stop you." Giovanni frowned. "And you have every reason not to trust me, so do as you like. I'll be leaving for the desert at two sharp. If you'd like to go with me, meet me at the gates of Join Avenue."

 

I nodded at Giovanni, waved, and offered a weak "slash," trying not to frown. I felt like I was breaking the guy's heart, but I had to take the out when I could get it. He nodded, looking away quickly, and trudged off. I wanted so badly to hold out a hand, to shout "wait," to apologize… but at this point that wouldn't help anyone. Even if I took it back, he'd still know I didn't trust him now.

 

"What a complete bother." Cheren straightened his tie. "He's up to something, too. Can't we at least have another two years to get ready this time?"

 

I said, softly, trying not to be heard by anyone but him, "Maybe he's really sorry."

 

"Oh yeah, befriend an apparently legendary Pokemon who may not even fit his type specialty because he's 'sorry.'" The guy rolled his eyes.

 

"Dude, this isn't the first time I met him. He warned me about Ghetsis and how he'd manipulate N last time."

 

"For one, this'll look a whole lot less weird if you take my hand and walk with me." So I did, trying to look up at him like a child would, even though I wanted to slap him. "For two, warning someone about Ghetsis using N is like warning someone not to stick their hand in a fire. What's your ability, Oblivious?"

 

That was enough. I wrenched my hand out of his and looked back toward where Giovanni was. I wanted to tell him off, but I knew I wouldn't be safe if I did. Everyone was staring now.

 

"Oh, come on. You just wander around with a guy who kills Cubones and forces Pokemon to evolve and you expect people coo and coddle you like you're some helpless little Mareep?" He bent down a little, glaring at me, looking over glasses that weren't there. "Are you responsible for your own safety and intelligent enough to make your own decisions, or are you a Pokemon who'll follow the first trainer he comes across like a hungry Lillipup?"

 

That was too much.

 

I grabbed his tie, and pulled him close, to my face, not caring who could see me. I saw his hand go to his belt, but he didn't open the Pokeball there. "Didja ever think you might catch more flies with honey than vinegar, Cheren? You didn't rescue me from him. I coulda left whenever I wanted."

 

"So why didn't you?" His voice was cool.

 

"Because I didn't want to!" The words sent a chill through me; I could feel a pressure in my head, like I was forgetting something, missing something. It wasn't right. But I was starting to get loud, so I checked my volume, and whispered. "Where I come from you don't judge people based on something they did years ago, or what they come from, or what they look like, or even what species they are. You judge 'em based on what they do. What they've done recently. Everyone deserves a second chance."

 

I let go of his tie, and he stood up, straightening himself. "Fine, I won't disparage your trainer anymore, but don't say I didn't try to help." Still, he averted his eyes and walked forward. I followed.


	9. Ally Switch

We walked into the avenue in silence, eyes on me. Cheren lead me over to a little kiosk. I could smell meat, vegetables, fruit, pies, everything I'd ever wanted and would ever want. I felt, and heard, my stomach growl loudly.

 

"Hello Alena," Cheren said to the girl at the counter. "What would you recommend for a poorly trained Pokemon with a weak stomach?"

 

Weak stomach? What was he talking about?

 

"I take it he's not yours then," she said, grinning, leaning forward on the counter.

 

"How about a Friendly Combo? And I'll have a Wonder Brunch. To go. I don't want the little monster to grab someone else's tie…"

 

Her eyes widened a bit at that, but she nodded and hurried to put together some food in a bag, and a drink tray, handing them over to him. He paid her and turned back the way we came.

 

I looked at her, shrugged, and followed him.

 

He lead me back out, across town, into a little nook behind the fountain in the park by the Ferris wheel. He sat down on the grass, which was not what I expected from Mister high and mighty, so I took it as an apology and sat, too.

 

Still, he was silent as he passed out the goods: a sandwich. A little bowl of something. A drink. Then he started pulling the same out for himself, although his were wrapped differently.

 

I opened my food.. Grilled chicken sandwich in the wrapper, maybe, and in the bowl, what smelled like potatoes… baked fries? I let out a little moan as I stuffed the sandwich into my mouth. It was amazing. The bun was just a little bit sweet, the meat was juicy. I tore into it, chewing eagerly.

 

"Don't eat too fast," Cheren chided. I had forgotten he was there. "You'll make yourself sick."

 

"Kay, dad," I snapped, mouth full, and resumed eating.

 

That shut him up.

 

I ate everything in the sandwich wrapper. I seriously considered licking the paper. Then I moved onto the fries. They weren't potato, some kinda vegetable, and they were baked instead of fried. Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't have liked them much. But they were so good! I ate every little piece. The drink wasn't anything super impressive; N and I had pretty much lived on vending machine drinks… but this one was fresh, and it was better. I drained it. I'd eaten everything. My stomach ached, but my head felt a little clearer.

 

Cheren was still picking at his sandwich. Looked like some kinda roast beef. He stared at me with those cold little eyes.

 

"What?"

 

"I want you to understand something, Sonic. I'm not heartless. N was a villain once, but I'm more or less on the same side as him now. But I saw N in action. I saw what he did, how he behaved. I saw him talk about what he believed, and I saw his beliefs tested and crushed. I trust him."

 

I nodded. "I got friends the same way. But Giovanni ain't from around here. He's from Kanto, and all the stuff he did happened when you were a little boy."

 

Cheren nodded. "There's one man who did see him in action. Who tested his goals and his beliefs. And Red talks to him even less than he does everyone else." Cheren sipped his soda.

 

"Maybe Red ain't as forgiving as you and me."

 

"Maybe not. But you're in a far more vulnerable place than us. Let someone like Blue or me try to redeem Giovanni. Don't put yourself and everyone else in danger to prove a point."

 

I pondered my wrapper for a second, and then I laughed. "How much would it tick Cobalion off if I told him he sounded like you?"

 

"I'm sure he'd be thrilled." Cheren droned, taking a bite.

 

"So what was up with that paternalistic crap you did in front of Giovanni?" I leaned back against the fountain we were sitting under, putting a hand on my stomach.

 

"You'd said all of two sentences to me. I had no idea how much of a Pokemon you really were. I just knew you were rare and special, and if you were going to go with someone against your will it was going to be someone who'd give you the respect you deserved. Probably Bianca. If you weren't happy with her, she'd set you free."

 

I couldn't help but smile. "She's a sweetheart."

 

"So you're where that spare Pokedex went." He sipped.

 

"I've meet a couple people I liked. N, of course. Professor Burnet. Hugh. I met him earlier today."

 

"I know." He grinned. "Hugh called me from Castelia City asking if there were any species of Pokemon that could speak our language. I came out to investigate."

 

"And there's this girl named Yancy. I found her phone not far from here. She seems nice enough. Oh, and there was a guy in the cave. Colress."

 

"He's bad news. He was the head of Team Plasma for a while, after N's group split off."

 

I shrugged. "He warned me not to go in there and didn't seem so bad anymore. Maybe he saw the error…" Then I remembered. Giovanni. Two o'clock.

 

Cheren rolled his eyes, seeming to understand what I was thinking. "It's 1:55. You won't make it."

 

I laughed and stood up, stretching. "They don't call me Sonic because I make a lot of noise."

 

"No, they call you Sonic because you tear through the subway faster than the trains and can run fast enough to make a sonic boom out on Route 4. People talk, you know."

 

I looked down at him as he sat there, food in his hand, legs crossed in front of him. And he looked up at me with sad blue eyes.

 

"What's wrong?"

 

"You're so much like N, and a friend of mine who isn't here. But I don't know you yet. I don't know if you're stubborn like her or naive like him. I don't know if you've got the willpower of a human or the submissiveness of a Pokemon. …and if I pick wrong and I let you go, I'm damning you to slavery." He sighed. "But it isn't my decision to make, is it? It's yours. Probably the most important thing I learned from Alder is that might doesn't make right."

 

I wanted to give him something. I wanted to say something, do something, to let him know I understood what he meant. But how could I? Any words I could say would just say I thought I understood. Maybe I didn't really understand. Maybe nobody really understands. But he was trying. I had to try, too.

 

"Cheren… where I come from, I used to be only thing that stands between my world and destruction. And a couple of times, it wasn't me who saved the day. It was people I defeated before. When I fell, Shadow was there. Shadow wouldn'ta been there if Eggman hadn't saved him. They'd both tried to kill me." I took out the Lum berry Giovanni gave me. "Giovanni gave me this. I don't know if I trust him yet, but I have to let him know I care enough to try." I tossed him the berry, and he caught it in one hand.

 

"He'll expect you to eat it." He reached into his pocket, and tossed a different one back at me. "Give me the number on that Xtransceiver. I'll call you. If it was safe, I'll talk about Bianca. If it wasn't, I'll talk about Hugh. Good luck."

 

I gave him the number and looked toward the gates. If I stayed here with Cheren, I'd be safer. Everyone had respect for him. Not so for Giovanni.

 

But I've never been a guy to play it safe when the world could be in trouble.

 

I sped off.

 

Running across town was easy. I'd gotten used to the patterns people walked in there. My stomach was cramping up from eating like that before I ran, but I was no stranger to hunger cramps after my weeks with N. This was different, at least.

 

Once I got into the mall, it was harder. Busy in there. It had been busy before, but I'd been following someone then. I had to walk. I was pretty sure I was gonna be late.

 

So I started walking, trying to dodge and weave around people who were in my way. Some of them were running, which seemed like a bad idea to me. As some little kid burned after me, I quickstepped to the right, and stepped stomach-first into some woman's knee. I groaned and fell on my rear, holding my stomach.

 

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry." In an instant she was at my side, arm wrapped around my shoulder, another around my hand.

 

I wanted to tell her it was ok, but I remembered where I was. "Saaaaaaaaand." I tried to stand up, and she helped me.

 

"You must be looking for your trainer. Huh, you're the strangest Sandslash I ever saw." She stood, brushing her purple hair out of her face, and smoothed out the skirt of her purple dress. "You're not Giovanni's Sandslash, are you?"

 

I nodded. That burned to hear.

 

"Let me take you to him." She held out a hand, and I took it, like a good Pokemon should.

 

She led me along the way, stepping in between me and any people who looked like they might get in my way. I didn't know how to feel. On one hand, she was treating me like a little kid… but she was still being nicer than a lot of the people who treated me with respect.

 

I saw the back of his head before anything, just about to pass out the mall's southern exit. She saw it a split second later, because she shouted, in a bellow that surprised me, "GIOVANNI!"

 

Apparently some shouting was normal in here, becuase only the people near us noticed. He turned, sneering, mouth open to deliver some sharp words, until he saw me. And his eyes widened. He smiled.

 

"Your Sandslash was looking for you. …You might want to get him checked out by a nurse." she let go of my hand, and I walked over to him.

 

He patted me on the head. "Thank you. I've already spoken to a doctor about his health. Are you ready to go, Sonic?"

 

I nodded.

 

He turned to leave, and I waved goodbye. The woman waved back.

 

Once outside, he chuckled. "I'm surprised you decided to show up."

 

"Hey, you were the one who warned me about how naive N was. Someone doesn't like the person I'm travelling with, and I gotta know why. It isn't personal."

 

He nodded. "And then you hope your travelling companion doesn't feel slighted."

 

"Oh, because you just expected people to trust you. What a shock when they don't."

 

That earned another chuckle. "You seem to be in good spirits."

 

"I ate real food. On someone else's dime. Although I gotta wonder why he asked the lady at the counter what would be good for a Pokemon with a weak stomach."

 

Giovanni started walking again, looking back at me. "I imagine he was concerned you'd have trouble adjusting to processed food after subsisting on whatever you and N managed to forage. Cheren's the teacher at the Trainer's School in Aspertia City. He may be young, but he's a man of both great experience and considerable academic learning."

 

I shrugged. "I always feel a little funky when I come back to society after a long time out in the wilderness. Body needs time to get used to things."

 

Giovanni turned back around, stopping. "You're certainly doing better than I did when I first left Tohjo Falls. But if you want to be a part of this, and you aren't up to it, we can wait another day."

 

I shrugged, but I couldn't help but smile a little. "Dude, I'm fine." Then I walked on ahead of him, changing the subject. "So, we'll just find a Pokemon who wants to go with a strong trainer and fight in tournaments, you'll catch him, and I'll see if he acts different."

 

Giovanni laughed. "I think your green friend is rubbing off on you, Sonic. Clearly you intend to see the extent of the mental alterations Pokeballs make on a Pokemon's mind, but how would you observe those changes in a Pokemon who wants to travel with a human?"

 

We passed under an overpass; I could hear the cars zooming past overhead. A man in a purple shirt was standing nearby, staring up at the cars.

 

"I don't know. Wouldn't it be a different kinda want? I guess there'd have to be changes."

 

Giovanni adjusted something in his pocket. "You can't seriously expect to learn anything from having me capture a Pokemon who enthusiastically wants to be caught. If I catch someone who wants to be caught and they show no changes, and you use that as a justification not to interfere with Pokemon trainers, you could well be deceiving yourself." He was making a face, uncomfortable. This was an uneasy topic for him.

 

"You aren't saying I should sit by and let you catch someone who doesn't want to be caught."

 

"I was going to catch my Sandile without regard for its desires anyway. That's the way of catching Pokemon. We assume any Pokemon that appears before us without some obvious reason wants to be captured. What's one more Pokemon, one more day?"

 

I wrinkled up my nose. "'What's one more person, one more day,' you mean. I can't just let you capture someone who doesn't wanna be captured."

 

We walked past a set of stairs, toward a dig site. "How about this: we find a Pokemon who wants to be caught, but has reservations about me. Then, I capture him, and we see what happened to those reservations. Afterwards I let him go and catch a more willing target."

 

I probably should have been more worried about the lasting effects mind control of any kind would have on someone. I probably should have thought about it harder. But something in me was tired of fighting people who were on my side. The compromise seemed more than fair. I said, "Sure" and walked a little faster to catch up with him.

 

"Excellent. And it seems we needn't use that protective gear for you after all. You appear to be a ground type; most Pokemon who aren't are hurt by the sandstorm. Another case for you being some kind of Sandslash, I suppose."

 

I grumbled. "I have a type now? This sucks. I'm not a Pokemon."

 

"Most humans are normal type. Some are fighting or Psychic. It's not as clear-cut with us, but the type advantages are still clearly in place. Perhaps humanity and Pokemonkind are not so different as we thought. And you and I, we can bring them together. But first, you must see with your own eyes what a Pokeball can do." Giovanni motioned down the path ahead of us. "That way is the desert resort. It is the best place to catch a Sandile. From here, there's no turning back. If we go through that pass in the hills, I need you to commit to helping me find two Sandiles: one with reservations about letting me capture him, and one who wants what I want. Otherwise, this whole endeavor of yours will have been for naught." He looked down at me, smiling. "And what do you say, Sonic the Hedgehog?"

 

"I'm in."


	10. Nightmare

It was hard to see much with the sandstorm in the the way, but what little of the castle peeked out of the sands was bright in the sunlight. I could only see the tops, but I knew from my adventures that it went much deeper. Far beyond that, I could see the sea stretch on for what seemed like ages.

"Pokemon stay in the deep sand, where more casual human visitors are loathe to tread. If we're going to recruit by intention, someone who understands their speech needs to take point."

Buzzkill.

"Right. So I'll wander in and start talking to people." And off I went.

Pokemon nodded at me, some giving little waves. Nobody challenged me. I hadn't been challenged a lot in my time here. Eventually I found a couple Sandiles sunning themselves, and I walked up.

"Howdy," I greeted them.

"Holy crap! A blue Sandslash!" One of them gasped, jumping.

"Who speaks human!" Another one added, seeming equally shocked.

A nearby cactus, whom I knew was a Maractus the moment she spoke, asked, "Are you the one Virizion was talking about when she stopped by? The one who wants to save Pokemon?"

"Yeah, that's me. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog.."

"Whaddya want?" The one Sandile asked, approaching me. He was trying to look menacing, but I didn't buy it.

"I'm trying to free Pokemon from humans," I explained, lowering myself down to his level, "but I wanna understand exactly how Pokeballs control them."

"What if we don't want to be freed?"

That voice came from behind me; I turned and looked. A strange black bird with yellow wings fluttered there in the sandstorm, looking at me with blue eyes. A Sigilyph.

"Then you go back to 'em." I crossed my arms, glaring at him. "Of your own free will, instead of being made to. That's why I gotta figure out the Pokeballs."

"So you're not one of those people who want to separate Pokemon and humans?" The Sigilyph perched on the male Sandile. He barely noticed. I guessed they knew each other.

"No. I just want people to quit stuffing you guys in little balls."

"You're smarter than our old trainer, then," the Sandile said. "So what'd ya need, Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"A human friend of mine is going to catch some Pokemon. He needs them for a tournament he's fighting in. I want to see how being in a Pokeball effects Pokemon. I've met wild Pokemon, and I've met trained ones, but I've never seen a before and after." I knelt down again. "He said he was looking for a Sandile."

The Sigilyph and the Sandile looked at each other briefly, and then the Sandile turned to me. "Your trainer ain't one of those Team guys, is he?"

I scratched under my nose. My head was starting to hurt "Heh. He used to be. Team Rocket. He was the leader."

The Sigilyph rolled his eyes. "Exactly the kind of people our old trainer warned us about when he let us go. Sonic, you seem nice enough, but you can't seriously expect any of us to travel with a human who even humans thinks is evil."

I frowned. "I've met a lot of humans. This guy's the second one I met who ran a Team. They've both been decent guys. N took care of me when I was si-"

That's when the chatty Sandile cut me off. "You aren't gonna make a lot of friends mentioning that name here, Sonic. Couple of us are still kinda ticked at him for cutting us loose. We didn't wanna go."

The Sigilyph took to the air again, hovering above his friend. "Most of us had agreed it would be a temporary arrangement: once we defeated the female, we would part ways. But it didn't sit right with any of us afterwards, even the ones who had vehemently disliked humans before."

The Sandile nodded. "Do ya really gotta see it for yourself, hearin' that? Sigilyph here hated humans, and even he misses N."

I felt like my heart was crawling up into my throat. This was just confirming everything I'd heard about Pokeballs that was bad. How could I condemn a new Pokemon to that, especially with a shady guy like Giovanni? But I still didn't feel sure. I didn't want to leave someone who'd been that nice to me hanging… and I wondered if their old trainer being N had anything to do with how much they missed him. I even missed the guy. I don't miss people.

The second Sandile, the one who'd been shocked I was blue, finally spoke up. "I'm the second-strongest Sandile in the desert. I'm getting tired of beating up Maracti just to get my kicks. I want to fight, and I want fights I might even lose." She whipped up some sand with her tail. "I've had to listen to all the Pokemon the King left behind talk about how great it was to have a trainer. Well, if your friend was head of a team, he's strong. And if someone who was with the King is with him, he must really be better than he was. Has he been kind to you, Sonic?"

I nodded. "He was the only one who warned me about the trouble N was getting into. When another trainer was worried he was abusing me, he let me go with that guy. He even agreed to my terms for catching Pokemon."

She nuzzled N's Sandile, and came forward. "Then I'll go with you, and hope he's kind enough to let me visit sometimes."

"Baby, don't go…" he begged.

"That's what I told you two years ago," she barked at him. "You came back. Maybe I will." Then she looked at me with sad, black eyes and walked back the way I came.

I looked at the others. "Thanks for your help. I'll let him know the score."

"You better be right about him, Sonic," N's Sandile warned.

"Give N our regards," the Sigiylph asked.

So I lead the Sandile over to Giovanni. I wanted to talk to her along the way, to tell her how great he was, but I couldn't bring myself to speak. I broke up a relationship… maybe even a family. She said she wanted to go, but did she really? Do you need a Pokeball to control somebody? She kept looking back at where we left her partner.

"Giovanni. I found a lady who wants a good fight. Her only condition is that she comes back here and visit her family pretty often."

He smiled, making eye contact with her. "And you're both sure this is what she wants?"

She looked back once, and nodded. "Hit me."

Giovanni seemed to understand that. He threw the Pokeball, and it sucked her up in red light. It rocked once, and clicked. Then he called her back out.

"That wasn't so bad," she grumbled.

"Do you feel different?"

"I still want a fight," she said. "I'm still me."

I smiled, and Giovanni ordered. "Well, let's walk back to town, then."

I wanted to call him on the change in plans, but I didn't really want to see the effects of a Pokeball on someone who didn't wanna go. walked along behind them. She scurried at his feet, looking up at him in awe.

We were back at the doors of Join Avenue when I stopped dead in my tracks. It was like something had gripped all of me too tightly, from my stomach right up to my head.

It was the realization that she hadn't looked back once… Not since she came out of the ball.

I gasped suddenly, jerking my head back to look toward the desert. The sudden movement sent waves of pain radiating through my head, and a wave of something unpleasant, but not quite pain, through my body.

"Sonic?"

Before the Pokeball, Sandile had looked back, constantly. I had been able to tell she was thinking about her mate back there, N's Sandile. And since the Pokeball… Nada. Her eyes had stayed on Giovanni. What had I done to her? What had I done to N's legacy? I'd lead this Pokemon right into a brainwashing device. I'd gone against everything N stands for with the help of his Pokemon and his Pokemon's girlfriend. I'd destroyed a family he'd let his Pokemon go to protect.

"Sonic?" A rough hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I felt like I was of two minds. Part of me wanted to shove it away, to claw it off me at any means necessary… and part of me was soothed, calmer for having it there.

"Giovanni," I turned and looked toward him. I could feel the panic creeping into my voice. I don't panic. "Before we…" I looked at her. She was staring at me with quizzical black eyes. If she really was brainwashed, would I be helping her any by telling her?

"Before we what? Sonic, you look as if you've seen a ghost."

"Before the Pokeball, she kept lookin' back, toward her mate. Afterward, she didn't, once!" I looked at her, staring with wide eyes.

"Well, it really wasn't as bad as you acted like it was, Sonic." She glared. "Geez. I'm not some drooling Yamask."

I crossed my arms, hoping they didn't look as shaky as they felt. "Do you still want to go back to him?"

"Of course. After I've gotten in some good fights." She looked up at Giovanni. "I know you don't understand me, but I think you should put him back in his ball. I think he's Confused."

I felt myself relax a little, but the whole thing still didn't sit right with me. N's Pokemon had agreed to leave him, but they missed him. She seemed way calmer about being away from her family before… but I had built up the trauma of a Pokeball, too. And Giovanni was way too unconcerned… but of course he would be. He'd spent his whole life being told this was ok. A strange ache was creeping up my neck into my head, and it felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. Something was wrong here, so wrong, and I was missing something. But what?

Was I in over my head?

Could I really save all the Pokemon?

"Sandile, return." The Pokeball buzzed, and she disappeared in a stream of light into a ball that suddenly appeared to my left. He was behind me. His hand was still on my shoulder. I could feel his coat brushing against my side, my spine sticking inside a hole in something hard in his pocket. He was there, behind me. I had been so lost in my panic I hadn't noticed him take a step closer, hadn't noticed his arm creep down my shoulder protectively.

I jumped. "Is that a Pokeball in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" I joked, hoping it didn't sound as flat as it felt. I looked up at him. His eyes went wide. He looked alarmed.

He pulled his body away, his hand going into his pocket. "That's disgusting, Sonic. You're a Pokemon."

"Seriously, my spine got caught on something in your pocket."

"I noticed. Probably my medal box." He glowered at me.

"You do that goofy medal rally stuff?" I laughed, grinning.

He looked away. "Shut up. You're acting awfully erratic for being the one so concerned about another Pokemon's mental health, you know."

I nodded. Couldn't argue with that. "Dude, I just thought I was an accomplice to brainwashing. Most people would be freaked the heck out at that idea."

He shook his head. "No, Sonic, most people would not panic at all unless they realized it could happen to them." He looked away. "Most people are selfish, short-sighted creatures who have little regard for anything but their own needs. Your kindness is so rare it becomes a sort of naivete."

I don't know what it was about that comment… It should have bothered me, 'cause it always bothers me when people say that. I don't like thinking I'm any different from anyone except in how fast I am. But something about that kinda comment, coming from someone like him, it just made my heart leap in my chest. Maybe I was making a difference. Maybe I was helping him. Maybe I was getting through to him the way I never could to Eggman… I felt myself smile.

"But in all seriousness… Sonic, you're acting quite high-strung. It leaves me concerned, especially given the poor health in which I found you." He knelt down in front of me, putting his hands on my shoulder. "Is there more to this? Is there something you haven't shared with me?"

As I looked into his eyes.. those deep set, dark black eyes, as I watched light play on them from the sun shining… I knew how serious he was. I needed to check myself. And as I ran my mind through how I was feeling, I found it was awful. My head was killing me. I felt exhausted. It was hard to breathe, like something was squeezing my chest. I was still stuffed from my lunch with Cheren, but at the same time I felt a craving for some indefinable food I couldn't have. The thumb of my right hand was twitching against the flat surface of the box in his left pocket.

The realization that I had gotten into such awful shape sent another wave of terror through me. I frowned, open-mouthed.

"What? What is it?" His hands squeezed my shoulders a little tighter.

"I don' t know." I looked away from him, closing my mouth. "I think I'm getting sick again. It just snuck up on me."

"I'm taking you back to my hotel room in Driftveil. You can rest the night there. If you aren't feeling more yourself by morning, we'll get a doctor or a nurse to have a look at you." He shifted his weight slightly. "Wrap your arms around my neck. I'm going to carry you."

I cocked my head to the side. "Dude, my spines. And… and I weigh like, eighty pounds."

"That's probably the same size my son was last I picked him up." He shook his head. "I'm not letting you walk across two towns ill after I dragged you out into the desert catching."

My head was throbbing so hard I didn't really think about my pride. I just wrapped my arms around his shoulders. He wrapped his arms underneath me and picked me up, grunting as he stood. And then he carried me through Join Avenue, silent.

I could feel eyes on us, staring. I saw Cheren near the north end of the market; he was the only one who smiled at us. I smiled back.

I must have fallen asleep as he walked with me, because I dreamed we were on a boat, fishing. Giovanni and me. I reeled in a fish, and afterward, he said to me, "Son, you know you're going to have to gut that fish before we can eat it."

I looked down, to see what I was getting into. The fish stared up at me with N's blue eyes.


	11. Follow Me

Author's Note: Effective immediately, I'll be posting two chapters a week. Enjoy. :)

Suddenly I was falling, and scrambled to hold on.

Then there was a cry of pain. I kept trying to grip whatever I was hanging from.

"Sonic, STOP!"

The command cut through everything: layers of instinct and fear and terror. My arms were wrapped around a man's neck. I could feel his hot breath on my chest. I could feel his hands under my legs and back, wedged between my spines.

The room was dark, but cool evening sunlight was peeking in.

And in the stillness, some of it came back to me.

"Giovanni?"

"Let go of my neck before you snap my head clean off," he hissed.

I threw my arms back, away from his head, letting myself fall. His hands stopped me part of the way down, but then they started moving, taking me with them. Then I landed on something soft, and he pulled them out from under me, while his black eyes stared at me in disappointment.

I was disappointed, too.

"Geez, dude, I'm sorry. I was having a nightmare." I pulled myself up to sit, scratching my head. "Then I was falling."

He rubbed his neck, wincing. "I was putting you on a bed. After I carried you through Nimbasa City, across the Drawbridge, and all the way to the Grand Hotel in town."

I looked down. "I'm sorry. I forgot where I was. I just thought I was falling." Then I looked back up at him. "Are you all right?"

"That's what I should be asking you." He pulled his neck back and cracked it.

I blinked, looking down. My head didn't hurt as much, at least. My stomach felt better. I wasn't quite so tired. And yet… the room we were in felt so dark, so small. I tried not to look around. "I feel a lot better, thanks. Sure beats trying to walk home when I'm sick."

"I think beats is the operative word, there." He turned away from me.

"Aww, come on, Giovanni, don't be like that. I didn't mean to hurt you, and you know it." I shook my head. I felt pretty bad, but I had to snap myself out of it. I had to believe myself if I was gonna convince him to back off. "I mean, come on, I wake up in the arms of a strange man when I'm sick and you expect me not to freak out a little?"

"And think of how I feel. I carry a strange Pokemon who insists on meddling in my affairs across two towns and a drawbridge and get strangled for my efforts." He turned back around. "I respect you enough not to try to put you in a Pokeball while you sleep. Can you respect me enough to not be surprised when I'm rightly perturbed at having been assaulted?"

I couldn't help myself. I rolled my eyes. "Dude, I said sorry, and I mean it. And if I could do something to un-hurt you, I would. But it's done. You don't need to be like this. Now, can I go find some ice for ya or not?"

He grumbled. "Now what is the point of you getting ice for me when I carried you all the way in here? You should rest until you regain your senses. I'll get the ice myself." He stormed out of the room.

That was when I took a minute to look around. It felt so small, but actually it was a pretty big bedroom. The walls were a soft gray with green trim, and all the linens—the bed I was on, the curtains, even the little mat at the door, were a goldenrod color. There was a little table and two chairs, a bed, and a lamp. A hotel room, and a pretty swanky one at that. The curtains were pulled, but it seemed like the windows were easily big enough for four or five people to stand side by side, lookin' out. And there were two glasses on a tray on the table, along with an alarm clock.

I lay back on the bed, sighing. That whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. He was a jerk. I mean, I guess it's understandable... and I got the feeling people there weren't used to violence. They were used to Pokemon protecting 'em, and they built us up like we're danger…

Us?

I put my hands on my face and groaned. I was starting to think of myself as a Pokemon. Not good. I needed to think of myself as human for my whole plan, or what little plan there was, to work. If I started acting like a Pokemon…

From there I rolled onto my side, looking at the glasses on the table. Water. I needed water. I hadn't had a drop since we'd gone out to the desert.

But, the way he sounded, it was almost like he was gonna bring something back there. Or like whatever had been wrong with me, it'd go away if I laid around. He knew the world better than I did. Besides, if he were still wigged out? My head still hurt a little. I didn't need the noise.

I was just about to nod off again when I heard the door open. I opened my eyes, and he was there, silhouetted by the door. He had something in his hands.

"I hope I didn't wake you." His voice sounded so soft. I didn't know it could go that soft.

I started to sit up. "I wasn't asleep yet. You ok?"

He sat a bowl of something down on the table, along with two bottles of water. Then he took an ice pack out of his pocket and put it on his neck. "I think I'll be all right. You're just a bit stronger than my son was at your size."

I nodded. "Heh. Guess I am. … So what's happening now?"

"I couldn't be sure when you'd need to eat again. It can be touch and go after a change like this. So I ordered a berry salad from room service. I also brought you some water."

"Two whole bottles? Just for me?" I grinned, playful.

"Well, Sonic, I thought you might want some company. But, if you still don't trust me, I can leave."

"Nah, I think you're good. But you don't have to babysit me, you know." I reached into the bowl and picked out a berry. It looked almost like a teeny tiny melon. Hondew berry? I popped in my mouth. It was kinda dry and bitter, and I almost spat it out, but for some reason I liked it anyway. "If you've got something you'd rather do, don't feel like you gotta watch me."

He shook his head. "There's nothing else for me to do. I'm just off the phone with my son. He wasn't pleased." He looked at the sunlight sneaking in around the curtains, on the floor, the wall. "If you aren't too tired…. I'd like to hear about this world of yours."

I smiled. "Maybe I can tell you a little."

We talked late into the night. He had some pretty cool insights about my adventures, more than the Pokemon did. He noticed things I didn't, like how the storybooks I got stuck in had similarities to what was going on in my life. I almost didn't wanna stop because it was nice to have someone listen, but by the end of the night he was nodding off and so was I. I went to bed feeling better, but I don't remember the nightmares I know I had.

Then that phone rang again.

I scrambled for it and opened it. "'Lo?" I asked. I saw a dour face with blue eyes staring back at me.

"You do realize that Cross Transceivers have cameras, don't you, Sonic?"

I blinked. "Oh crap. At least it's you."

Cheren blinked, too, leaning in a little toward the camera. "That's not something I hear often." Then he leaned back a little. "So what happened yesterday? Why did Giovanni have to carry you?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know. I started feeling really sick after we caught that Sandile." I cracked my neck. It hurt a lot more than it should have. "I was feeling better last night, but now my head hurts again."

"Where are you?"

"The Grand Hotel in Driftveil, I think." I looked around on the table for something that said the name. "Giovanni's hotel room."

"Do you need someone to help you escape?"

My head snapped back toward the cross-transceiver at that, sending a twinge of pain through my temples, and I felt a surprising anger welling up in me. I barely noticed the pain in my head as I moved. "Why would I need to escape? I got sick and he carried me here."

Cheren shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he wasn't as nice as you thought he was." He raised an eyebrow. "Sonic, you seem agitated. Your defense of him yesterday seemed much more… I don't know how to explain it."

I rolled my eyes, scratching my nose. "I'm not feeling well and I was sleeping. And then you called and woke me up. Of course I'm agitated." Then I frowned. "What'd you call for anyway?"

"Are you alone?"

"Does it look like I have company?"

He frowned, and pushed glasses up on his nose. "What's your ability, slow start? That berry checked out. It was a normal Lum berry."

"Man, you aren't even gonna give him a chance, are you?" I leaned in toward the phone. "Asking me if I wanna leave before you even tell me the thing he gave me was safe."

He stared at me for a second, his jaw falling away from his top lip. And then he turned, and said, "Bianca."

That familiar, blonde face appeared, moving the camera of the transceiver away from him. "Hey Sonic. How are you doing?"

"I've been better, thanks." I smiled at her. "So why did Cheren call you over to talk to me after I ticked him off?"

"Oh, I don't know." She smiled. "Sometimes I don't really get him. But what's wrong? If you're sick, we can probably find a doctor who can help you. Old Team Plasma is loyal to N, and some of them have a place in Driftveil…"

"Giovanni and I are gonna make arrangements, but I'll mention that to him. Thanks." I smiled back. "How are you?"

"Oh, I'm great. You should have Cheren analyze berries for you more often; it's not often he comes home to visit!" She looked off camera, and smiled. "Hard to believe two years ago we were here every day, us and Hilda."

I smiled, wondering if they were like Tails, Knuckles, and me.

"So how are you liking that Pokedex?" She asked.

"I haven't gotten much chance to use it. I've had humans around to tell me whatever I wanted to know." I smiled. "But I feel better knowing I could look anything up."

"So Giovanni carried you all the way from the resort to Driftveil City?"

"From Join Avenue, yeah. He's a lot nicer than I expected."

She smiled, but her eyes looked a little sad. "It sounds like you and he are starting to be friends. Maybe walking along the same path has helped you understand each other."

I nodded. Her comment seemed kinda weird, but I couldn't say it wasn't true. "Yeah. I don't think he's so bad at all… just that he never knew anything else. I think I can change him, Bianca. And with his help, we can save the Pokemon."

She grinned. "Oh, that's great! You sound just like Hilda! She thought she could change N, and she totally did!"

"Except N wasn't so bad to start with," Cheren quipped from off screen.

"Well," she conceded, looking over at him, "N wasn't really bad at all. Just misguided. He thought the people he was working with wanted what he wanted… and they were really just using what he wanted to get what they wanted."

The comment sent a chill down me, but I didn't shudder. I just frowned. I made my voice as stern as I could manage without actually being a jerk, and I said, "I wonder how he feels about how people talk about him. Behind his back."

She frowned. "Probably the same way they talk about me behind my back, more or less."

"Are you two done over there?"

She looked over at Cheren, frowned, and handed the Xtransceiver back to him.

"So, happy?" I asked.

"No. He put you in a Pokeball, didn't he?"

I was so shocked by that I let my shoulders fall forward, staring at Cheren from under my eyebrows. "Are you freaking serious, Cheren?"

"Not in the least, Sonic. I only asked you to get a rise out of you." He rolled his eyes.

I did the same. "Of course he didn't. Don't you think if he had I would be all 'Oh, Pokeballs aren't so bad; I know, 'cause I was in one?'"

He shook his head. "If you need anything, you know how to get ahold of me. And if I can find N, I'm giving him this number, so he can find you." And he hung up.

I glowered at the screen for a while, seething. I show some interest in someone they don't like and they start accusing me of being a Pokemon? Like I can't make my own decisions? Like I don't know what's best for me…

"It's often best not to keep such negative influences in your life," came a voice from behind me.

For the first half a second, I jumped, terrified. How long had he been here? What was he doing? But then something deeper in me soothed me. Relax, I thought. It's just Giovanni. Still, I stared at him with blank eyes, not sure how to feel about his eavesdropping.

"I'm a little hurt you don't trust me… but I was happy to hear your defense. But Cheren's known for running his mouth no matter how it might make others feel. It may be best to ignore him." Giovanni approached, a styrofoam container in one hand and another bottle of water in the other.

"He means well, I guess," I excused. "So what have you got there?"

"Your breakfast. I had to run to Castelia City, so I grabbed you a bite on the way back. The Casteliacone is in the minifridge." He sat the box on the table next to me, and sat down in a chair.

"You ran all that way?"

"I flew. Golurk are marvelous creatures." He put his elbow on the arm of the chair, and his face on his fist. "Sonic, are you all right?"

"I will be." I opened up the styrofoam box, and gasped.

Inside it was a chili-dog, Westopolis style, just like I like. Piled around it were fries, and a little cup of yellow berries with pointed bottoms. Grepa berries.

I thanked him and dug in.


	12. Shadow Sneak

Breakfast was amazing… well, it was a chili dog. How could it not be? But it sat a little easier in my stomach than the lighter meal I'd had the day before. I guess I just needed to get used to eating real food again. As I ate, my headache faded.

We made small talk over the meal. I let him know I'd woke up feeling pretty off, but also that the food had helped. He told me about what he did while he was out: dropping into Icirrus City to pick up some paperwork from a former employee, to Castelia to get the hinge on his medal box fixed, to Join Avenue outside Nimbasa to do some light shopping.

At that point, I'd finished my chili dog and started on the berries. I knew they were Grepa berries, and the books N had borrowed for me had said some trainers use them to modify Pokemon's abilities. Grepa berries lowered what they called "Special defense," I think, but at least some authors recommended only building up a Pokemon at the things it was good at. I knew if I were a Pokemon, I would be best built up in Speed and Attack, as they called them. That would fit with the meal; Giovanni had set himself up as someone to teach me, and getting my focus off special defense lined up with all the books I'd seen on training. Same with the Hondew berry salad he'd ordered for dinner the night before; Hondew berries took down special attack, I think.

I figured he'd introduce me to some Pomeg and Qualot berries, eventually.

It was hard to eat the Grepa berries because they were horribly sour, but I felt a lot better afterward. Stronger, and a bit less tense. I wondered if they were spposed to have that effect.

After I finished most of them, I finally asked. "So what happens today?"

Giovanni produced a folder and slid it over to me. "We make a plan to free the Pokemon. No more of this ambling around hoping someone can help you. We need a real, concrete plan, and we're going to make one."

I opened the folder and paged through it. It only took a few seconds for my head to start to swim. It was full of data, charts, schematics… all on Pokeballs. Some were printed, but some of them appeared to be sketched or doodled, on napkins and the backs of other paperwork. A lot of the letterheads were from a Silph Corporation, and a few were from a Devon Corporation. Some had Team Rocket letterhead, and there was at least one really badly photocopied piece that said something about a Team Galactic.

"What is this?"

"Every bit of data my agents have ever compiled on the nature, composition, and flaws of Pokeballs."

"I can't make sense of this, dude. I'm no scientist."

He frowned at me. "Yes, well, your friend Tails isn't here, and we can't exactly trust everyone. Most people have a vested interest in keeping the system the same, or a legal obligation to report the things we'd have to do to make this happen, or even challenge us to stop them."

I kept paging through it. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Most Pokeballs for this region are manufactured by Silph through their holdings in Virbank City. If we do anything dealing with Pokeballs directly, we'll have to interfere with them where they're produced, region by region. Why not start where we are, and where we wold have the most allies to help us if it goes wrong?"

I nodded. "We should try and get N on this."

"N's well distracted right now." Giovanni reached for the remote, turning on the TV. He muted it and flipped to a news station, which was reporting a new challenger for the Elite four. "A little girl from Aspertia is due to challenge the Elite Four today, and N, the former champion, has been spotted on Victory Road. Quite a few people are speculating that either he intends to spectate, or that he's meeting his old flame, the Hero of Ideals, there. Either way, he's busy."

I nodded. "We could get Cheren and Bianca in on it?"

"Cheren is a gym leader for the region. He'll lose his job if he knows and doesn't try to stop us. Not that it ever stopped me, but Cheren is a stickler for the rules." He shrugged. "Bianca has a reputation for being air-headed, one that I don't think is completely undeserved. And you know what they say about keeping a secret, Sonic."

I blinked at him, popping a berry into my mouth and bracing for the sourness. "No, what's that?"

"Two people can keep a secret when one is dead."

I swallowed the sourness, and joked, a little breathless, "Heh, well, maybe I shoulda gone with Cheren after all."

He grinned.

"So where do we go from here?"

"I'm going to consult with Colress, formerly of Team Plasma. He knows a bit about the control devices in Pokeballs, and can help me figure out exactly what component in Pokeballs we'll either need to stop production of, or replace. You're going to get ahold of Cynthia from Sinnoh, who fought against Team Galactic and their Red Chain, to do the same. Then we meet back here and plan."

I cocked my head to the side. "Why not go together?"

"Because Colress is docked on an island that can only be reached by surfing, and I don't trust him not to try to capture you. Besides, your self-education has been far more focused on the liberal arts, so you will be more able to keep up with someone resourceful enough to capture a Spiritomb than I." He grinned. "I have a business degree, after all."

I nodded. All good reasons. It was weird to hear someone suggest I'd be better at keeping up with someone than he was because of my education, but he had a point. As far as I can tell, Cynthia had a bunch of mythical Pokemon, and one of the books I read had said something about her researching myths. "So where do I find Cynthia?"

"The place to start would be in Undella Town. She has a villa there, although I hear she isn't always around. Otherwise, she'll likely be here, in Driftveil. You can go when you like, but I'll see you back here for dinner."

I nodded. "Roger that. Good luck, bro."

I found the stairwell and made my way down.

Sneaking out of the hotel? Not a problem. Sneaking toward the emergency access door for the subway? Not hard either. Going through the tunnels was a breeze. So was making my way out of the tunnel into Undella Town. The place was practically abandoned, so I was able to get the lay of the whole village without being spotted.

The problem got to be staying standing when I got there.

My headache had started to creep back when I got outside of Driftveil. I started to feel queasy by the time I crossed under Gear Station. By the time I surfaced, I was dizzy and sick. I had no idea what was wrong with me, but I knew I had to do what I had to do.

But it was hard enough finding Burnet without being able to ask. How was I doing to find Cynthia's villa without asking someone, especially like this?

Then my phone rang.

I was so surprised to hear it that I jumped to my feet, my spines scraping the rock I'd leaned up against. It left my head twanging. I at least had the foresight to turn the camera away from me, remembering my conversation with Cheren earlier.

"Hi, is this Sonic?"

Girl voice. Bianca? Who…?

"Yeah…"

"It's a little annoying we can't see each other. I mean, we could pass each other on the street and never know it. All I know is that you're a boy."

I rolled my eyes, which hurt. "Yeah… Look, I can't really talk right now, not unless you can help me…"

"Oh, what's wrong? You sound… different."

"I'm out looking for someone and I got sick on the way…" I took a deep breath. "I gotta find her, talk to her, and get home before I get harassed by some trainer or something."

"Oh, isn't that bothersome? I have the same trouble. People see a young girl and they think she wants to fight.. but listen to me prattle on. Who are you looking for?"

I turned, looking toward the town. "I'm in Undella Town, looking for Cynthia."

She chuckled. "Wow! That's really ambitious. But Cynthia's in Sinnoh right now. It's autumn."

I felt my shoulders droop. "Oh for… I was told she was here."

"Well, everyone's schedules are all over the place because of that tournament." I heard a little popping noise, like she smacked her lips together. That's something Amy would do… "Everyone had to come to Unova for the tournament registration, but some of them who have later tournaments have left and are coming back. Cynthia normally stays in Unova in the Spring and Summer, though."

I could feel rage building up inside of me, and every beat of my heart sent a stabbing pain through my head. "My friend told me she'd be here. And he knew she wouldn't…"

"Is your friend participating in the tournament?"

"Yeah…"

She squeaked a little, trying to sound like a little kid being reflective. "Aaaand is your friend from Unova?"

"No, he's from… uh.. the K one."

"Kanto? Well, if he doesn't normally stay in Unova he'd have no reason to know about her Villa schedule, and if he saw her at registration he might think she just stayed in town like he did. I bet he doesn't know. Oh, is your friend Red or B-" Then she gasped. "I gotta go! Sorry, Sonic!"

Click.

I slumped up against the rock. Unbelievable. I'd run out all this way, gotten sick en route, and for what? For nothing. Part of me wanted to be mad at Giovanni for not checking his facts… but then again, it's not like it was his job to help me, and he still had a better plan than N's lack of one. Calming down a little slowed my heart, and that seemed to help my head.

But then I had to get back to Driftveil… Get into the hotel, up to the room, sneak in by myself… Giovanni hadn't given me a key…

I looked over my shoulder again. I could see a Pokemon Center there, and part of me wanted to walk in and tell them what was going on. But what would happen to me then?

Maybe I could get back to Driftveil and go see the new Team Plasma?

Then I heard a pop, and snapped my head back toward it.

There they were. Moments before they hadn't been there, but now three people were standing around me. I wasn't sure if they were men or women; probably men, but they were slight enough I wasn't sure. All I could see was long white hair and black clothes.

And then they were reaching for me, one for each arm. They were fast. I'd never seen a human move that fast.

But I was faster.

I pushed myself up into the air, flipping forward and landing behind them, spinning on my heels even in the slippery sand to face them. Just as quickly they were coming at me, arms raised. My head was still throbbing, but somehow the danger had made it less. Maybe it was adrenaline. Maybe I was itching to fight.

I didn't wait for them. I made it look like I did, sure. But then I dropped into a ball, foot out, delivering a rolling kick into one's stomach exactly as he stepped in range. The other one had clearly expected the move, or reacted fast enough to seem like it, because he knelt down and arced his arms, as if to get me to roll right up them.

So I reversed my direction and threw myself his way with my arms, like a buzzsaw, scraping his forearms with the back side of my spines. He gasped, and that stunned him enough for me to uncurl and deliver another kick to his face.

The last one did manage to punch me in the gut—it was three on one, after all—but I had been in so much pain I hardly noticed it. I just knew if I didn't stop these clowns, I'd never get back to Giovanni.

Besides, a split second before his fist hit my stomach, my fist was already moving toward his face. I twisted my body just enough that the blow glanced off me, so it didn't mess up my momentum. I didn't hear a crack, but he stumbled backward.

By that point the first one had recovered. He was starting to get up, but he wasn't moving as fast as before, and he was watching me with wide eyes. These guys were used to being the fastest things alive, if N had told me right. Without their confidence, they weren't going to fight as well.

In the blink of an eye I was on top of him, swinging a foot into the back of his knees. I tried to aim and time it just right so I wouldn't really hurt him, just knock him down. It worked pretty well. I took a quick look at his boots… no laces to tie together. But those things hanging from his pants…

His friend was running at me, meanwhile, but he was just too slow. I threw my fist out when he got close enough and nailed him in the kneecap, probably harder than I intended. He shouted and dropped.

"What are you?" the third one asked, holding his face, standing still. Smart guy.

"I'm a hedgehog, not a Pokemon." I glared at him. "And I'm not sure what you are, but N prepared me for you anyway."

"We can help, Sonic the Hedgehog," said the one I'd knocked on his face. "We can help if you let us."

"Oh, right. I've never heard that one before."

The third one climbed shakily to his feet. "You will regret turning us away."

I'd had about enough of it. I chuckled. "Man, you guys are so original. They hire you to write the scripts out west?"

I hadn't quite gotten the "S" in west out when the one I punched in the face, the smart one, started to move for me.

By the time he got to the spot where I had been standing, I was halfway up Reversal Mountain, and I knew half of Undella Town had heard the Sonic Boom.


	13. Lunar Dance

By the time I made it down the mountainside, I thought that chili dog I had for breakfast was going to go to waste.

I was dizzy. I was nauseous. My head was pounding. And I had no idea how close those clowns might be behind me.

There was a house in front of me. An old, spooky house with no lights on inside.

Worth a shot.

I ran in the front door and shut it behind me, breathing a sigh of relief. I knew only one person could fit through that door at once. I had a minute.

Then I looked around.

Oh crap.

Sunlight seeped in the large windows, but otherwise the house was in darkness. Furniture was all over the place, at funny angles… a couch here, a potted plant there.

Then the couch moved, and I fought not to jump.

I've done haunted houses before. As in actually haunted, jerk ghosts. I was in a lot better shape when that happened, and I wasn't on the run from a bunch of bad guys I could only stop by killing.

…But I needed cover. And I was already there.

So I started looking around. Couches or plants were in front of all the doorways except one… a stairwell down into the basement. So I took it. The situation was pretty much the same down there: books, chairs, and couches all over the place. In better circumstances, I coulda sat down there reading books off the wall-to-wall shelves all day. These were not better circumstances. The basement wasn't a good place to wait for an ambush. Too many doors, too many blind corners. I crossed the basement and went up the stairs on the other side.

And everything was different.

The couch that had been on that side of the room was on top of the stairs now. Plants were forming a row blocking the way I came. And most disturbing of all… There was a single chair in front of the front door, blocking it closed.

Oh no.

I leaned up against the wall and let myself slide down, my head going to my hands. Just a minute, I told myself. I'll just be a minute.

And there I let the weight of it all press down on me. Washing up in a world whose problems I couldn't seem to fix by busting somebody's chops. Being hunted like an animal, one so rare everybody wants a piece. Rejected by one friend, sent on a poorly planned out mission by another… Being tugged at from every side… Everything in me wanted to run out of there, to leave. But the door was blocked.

… Like I'd let that stop me before.

I stood up, groaning, and tiptoed over to the chair in front of the door. I reached out to touch it, but an unlit candle whizzed past my head.

I turned to look toward the source. What I found there was a little girl with purple-brown hair, wearing white. She looked so tired, and her hands were clasped in front of her, eyes pleading. Begging me…

Well, I couldn't say no to that. I started backing away from the door, carefully and quietly, as if at any moment the chair might swallow me up.

That was when I heard it. Footsteps. The barking of a Pokemon I somehow knew was called Absol.

I stopped dead in my tracks, and the girl, she raised a finger to her silent lips.

"He must have gone in here. Absol senses disaster within."

"Do you know the history of this place? No Absol could sense anything but disaster here."

I knew those voices. The Shadow Triad.

The door rattled against the chair, but didn't open. "This door is blocked from the inside. He must be within."

She pointed toward an open room, and nodded to me. I slowly backed up, disappearing into the room's shadows.

After a few I heard the chair fly away from the door.. I heard them talk to each other quietly, then movement in different directions. And one after another… I heard three blood curdling screams, followed by the front door slamming.

After the last one, I peeked my head out the door. She was waiting there for me… smiling. Laying at her feet was a small black pouch… His bag. She looked down at it.

I opened it up. I hate snooping and stealing, but it was a lot less wrong than what those guys did to me. I found a couple cans of water, and chugged one of them. Then I offered the next one to the girl.

She smiled, giggling, but she looked a little sad.

"Hey, I had to try. Especially after you saved me like that. So I take it you can't shake hands, but... I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgheog."

She smiled and disappeared.

I kept going through the bag, nibbling on anything I thought might help me feel better. I tried everything. Casteliacones, berries of all kinds... I even sprayed myself with a potion, which just hurt my eyes. But after a while, something worked. So I offered the rest of the Shadow's bag to the Pokemon in the house, and a Raticate took me up on most of it. Then I went looking for her.

The furniture changed every time I found her in a room; sometimes she was there, looking at me, guiding me. Other times, she was there but she wasn't, reliving something. She kept talking about a dream of darkness that never ended… and something about a wing.

Finally I found it… laying in a bed in the loft. In a sweet purple bedroom with a moon on the rug. The bed was neatly made and turned down, unlike the rest of the furniture… this one room seemed pristine except for the dust.

And there was the wing… a green wing that seemed to brighten the room just by being there.

"I was waiting on the bridge, so I could return it myself…"

I turned and looked. She was behind me.

"But I can't take it now."

I nodded. "Which bridge?" I knew Unova had a lot of them.

"Marvelous."

"I'll take it there. Tomorrow. But I have to rest." I looked at the bed. "If I lay down here… will I have nightmares, like you?"

"Not with the wing."

"So why didn't you wake up?"

"I went looking, too far." She looked at the door.

I thought I understood what she meant. I flinched. "And then it came. Ouch. I'm sorry."

"I'm not." She turned to me and smiled. "It'll be ok. Rest easy, hero."

Unable to place why those words seemed so poignant… unable to argue with a voice that sweet… I lay down, wrapped my arm around the wing, and went to sleep.

What was it Burnet had said? Dreams are but another reality… never forget.

And the other part of the phrase, the one I shouldn't know… Those whose memories fade seek to carve them into their hearts…

I dreamed of a world where Pokemon and humans lived together, peacefully.

I woke up in a dusty bed, sunlight on my face and a yellow-green wing clutched in my hand.

And far, far way, at the end of my hearing, I could hear someone calling my name, and I was out of the room, down the stairs, and nearly to the door before I stopped on my quest to answer it.

Because I realized there was something I forgot.

"Hey, I don't know if you're still here," I said, turning back toward the house, addressing the air. "That felt pretty final yesterday. But I just wanted to thank you for helping me out. I'll take this to the bridge. You rest easy."

Then I dashed out of the door and listened for the voice.

"Sonic? Sonic!"

I found it easily, too easily. He was in the sooty bushes at the base of the mountain. I was pretty sure he was wearing the same pants he had on when I'd seen him the day before. His face was shinier than I was used to it looking. And his eyes lit up at the sight of me.

"Sonic!" He dashed over to me, faster than I realized a man his age could move, his black coat flapping in the breeze. "Where the hell have you been?"

That… stung a little. "I've been trying not to get captured," I snapped. "Cynthia isn't even in Unova."

"But I just saw her at the World Tournament registration," he whined. There were bags under his eyes.

"Yeah, well my buddy Yancy called me while I was in Undella Town. She's in Sin City or something right now. And right after I got off the phone with her, I got jumped by the Shadow Triad."

Giovanni's jaw dropped. "That doesn't make any sense. Colress assured me they retired along with Ghetsis."

I crossed my arms and learned on a rock. "Yeah, well, Colress is either wrong or full of it."

"Why didn't you come back to Driftveil?"

It was so hard to fight the urge to put my head in my hands. At least it wasn't hurting. "Dude, think about that for a minute. One, when they jumped me, I hadn't even been in Undella that long. I knew there was no way you were back from wherever you went that fast. What was I supposed to do, go throw myself at the mercy of Clay? Everyone acts like he's so greedy you can't trust him as far as you can throw him."

"They say the same of me." He grinned, amused, a twinkle in his eye.

"Yeah, well, I know you now." He had a point, but it was too uncomfortable to dwell on. "But seriously, who was I going to go to? Who could I trust? For two, they're almost as fast as me. I beat them up pretty good, but I knew I couldn't keep them down without doing real damage. I also figured they were fast, and I was right, but they were slower than I thought. I had to get away from them: no time to call anyone or look for better options."

He nodded, looking unhappy.

"And then… if they can give me a real fight, what are they going to do to you when they find you? Managing three of 'em at once is too much for me to do long term, especially if I have to keep someone as slow as you safe and try not to kill 'em."

That earned me a bemused chuckle. "Why do you care if you maim or kill them? It seems to me a creature of your power could dispatch them more easily than running."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I put my face in my hands and groaned. "Are you serious, Giovanni? Good guys don't just kill people. No wonder everyone's on about how you haven't changed!"

"Are you this judgemental toward all your friends, or just the ones with a villainous pedigree?" He snapped.

"Hey, you're the one who's all sensitive about it. If you're gonna be evil, be evil. If you're gonna be good, be good. If you're gonna care about what people think of you, try and please 'em… and if you're gonna worry about what's right, forget about what they think. But make up your mind already." I crossed my arms.

He glared at me, but then nodded. "I suppose I see what you mean. So how did you shake them?"

"I went into a house on the other side of the mountain, this side… and it was haunted. The ghost girl there did something and scared the crap out of 'em. Heard 'em all scream and leave. Then I spent the night."

"Why not go back to Driftveil later, when you thought I might be home? Or call?"

"No signal. Besides, I wouldn'ta made it very far." I drooped a little. "I got really sick in Undella Town, before the Triad found me. I could barely stand. It felt like it did after the desert, only way worse."

He took a step closer to me, worried. Suddenly his hand was moving toward my face.. resting on my forehead. "You might be a little warm, but I don't really know your temperature. We shall have to get you some kind of medical attention…"

"I'll have to wait." I planted my feet firmly. "I promised her I'd take this Lunar Wing to Marvelous Bridge. It's on the way back. I'll just run over the mountains and meet you back in Driftveil."

"You don't seriously expect me to leave you alone after you just told me how ill you were?" He shook his head, frowning. "What kind of friend would I be?"

"So come with me."

"I can't climb over that mountain in a day," he chided, looking up at the view. "But we can fly to White Forest on Golurk and walk from there." He glanced down at my hands. "So that's the Lunar Wing. How were your dreams?"

I grinned. "They were great. And if you got good data from Colress, well, maybe we can make 'em come true."

He smiled. "That I did. Once we have your health straightened out, we're going to Virbank City. We can talk about it after your errand, and a meal." Then he took a few steps away from me, opening a Pokeball. "Golurk! I'd like you to fly us both to White Forest. See to it that Sonic is kept comfortable."

The ghost that emerged looked down at me, a strange look on his ghastly face. "You're the guy boss was so worried about?"

I chuckled. "That's me."

He chuckled too. "Huh, I expected you to be taller. And human. Go figure. Hop on."


	14. Round

The flight was terrifying.

Ok, I am totally used to moving at those speeds.

What I am not used to is moving at those speeds with someone else in control.

Did not like that. Not at all. We broke the sound barrier, we swerved all over the place, and by the time we landed in the forest, I was actually a little queasy. I guess what they say about not getting sick if you're driving is true.

Giovanni, on the other hand, had a shit-eating grin when we landed. He put his hat back, adjusted something heavy in his pocket, and smiled. "And I bet you thought you were the fastest thing alive," he taunted me.

I crossed my arms, standing tall. "I'm the fastest thing on land. And if I ever go super, we better fit a race for top air speed in there." I grinned at Golurk. "That work for you?"

"It's not a competition to me, Sonic," he gave a little shrug. "My pride is in being there for people, not in competing."

I nodded. "Fair enough. That's probably better anyway." Giovanni was just looking back and forth between us, so I translated, "He says it ain't a competition."

That earned a smile from Giovanni, and then he recalled Golurk. I felt a little bad watching him get sucked in a Pokeball, but I'd read in a book that Golett and Golurk live to protect others. Somehow guys like that being in a Pokeball, doing what they loved, seemed like less of a tragedy.

"So, shall we?"

I nodded, and we started walking.

We crossed through a pretty forest into an area with some hills. There was a lab on the right, but I didn't ask about it. I was too busy wondering what I was going to do with the wing when I got there. Who was I giving it to? What was I doing?

But there was no sense worrying about it. I'd figure it out when I got there.

Giovanni kept looking at me, but he said nothing until we got into the gatehouse. "Would you like something to drink, Sonic? It's a long walk across the bridge."

I looked around. There was a woman tending to a Gothita and a man with a clipboard there. I nodded.

"How about some lemonade?"

I made my nod a little more enthusiastic at that. Sugar is nice.

He walked over to the vending machine and put in some money. I heard two clanks, and I saw weird clipboard guy start writing on his clipboard. Giovanni came back to me with two drinks. "Hmm. It gave me an extra one." He cracked one and handed it to me, then opened his and took a sip.

I chugged it. Oops.

He rolled his eyes, and on we went.

The view was amazing… and a little dizzying. We were high up in the hills, and the water seemed to stretch on forever. Luckily the guard rails on the side of the bridge were almost as tall as me. Swan-like Pokemon flew all over the place. I knew they were Swannas when they cried. As one passed overhead, a feather from floated down in front of me.

We walked in silence. I thought, for a moment, I saw that girl on the bridge, but if she was there, she was gone as quick as she came. As we neared the center, I noticed a sparkle at my side. I looked down, and the wing was shining.

I looked behind me. We were close to the elevator on the other side. I turned back. Same distance from the one we came out of.

So I held it up, and hoped something would happen.

It did. A creature, pink and yellow, whose shape reminded me of the moon, flew up, landing in front of us. She looked at me, and it felt like she was smiling… but then her eyes darted to Giovanni, and her expression changed.

"Hey, I uh… I think this is yours. A little girl asked me to give it to you. The one with the nightmares."

I took a tentative step forward, holding the wing out toward her.

"Darkrai was so sorry about that one," she said to me. "But she's sweet to send it back." She accepted it from me. "I know of a little girl across the other river who might have use of this. …Then again, so might you. But… are nightmares always bad?"

I frowned. "I guess not. Sometimes they tell you what ya need to know."

"All bad dreams can't help you… they would just make you afraid to sleep. But you don't learn anything from only good dreams. That's why, without Darkrai and me, most humans have both."

"Nothing in this world is all or nothing, except the idea of all or nothing," I agreed. "Hey, that was kinda Zen."

"Actually, it was rather more Tao," Giovanni corrected, snickering.

"Most people don't get it when you say Tao, Gio," I chuckled along with him, before turning back to Cresselia. "But what are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm trying to tell you something another Pokemon once told me. She's around here… maybe she could tell you better." Cresselia looked over my shoulder, southeast.

"And what's that?"

"Those whose memories fade seek to carve them into their hearts. All dreams are but another reality. Never forget…"

And then she flew away, sparkling in the sun.

"What was that all about?" Giovanni took a step closer to me, looking down.

"I keep hearing people say that. Burnet, the ghost girl, now her." I shook my head. "But what does it mean?"

"What is it?"

Oh right. I had forgotten he couldn't understand Pokemon.

"Those whose memories fade seek to carve them into their hearts," I started.

"Dreams are but another reality. Never forget," Giovanni finished.

I blinked. "You've heard it before?"

"A traveler in Hoenn found the words on a sign on an island south of that region while seeking the Legendary Pokemon Latias." He grinned, and then started walking down the bridge again. "The saying attained something of a memetic status in subsequent years. Many researchers in the areas of Pokemon dreams, psychology, and even Pokeballs have cited it as inspiration for their more recent breakthroughs." Giovanni shrugged.

I started walking down the bridge again, toward the Nimbasa side. "Researchers like Fennel and Burnet."

He nodded. "But to most of us, it's just a philosophy. Or a riddle, for those of us with things we can't remember. I don't remember most of my childhood. Sometimes I wonder if the awful things I've done in some way reflect the things I don't wish to recall."

I frowned. "I had a friend go through that once. He couldn't remember his past, but he more or less repeated it." Maybe I was wrong when I called Cobalion as this world's equivalent of Shadow.

Giovanni cleared his throat. "Sometimes, when you look at me… I see recognition in your eyes. Is there a man in your world of whom I remind you?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, you got me there. But it's not the amnesiac you remind me of."

"Oh?"

"It's my worst enemy." I grinned, sheepish.

"And yet here you walk, beside me." Giovanni laughed.

I scratched my nose, grinning. "It ain't that simple. He gave me the opportunity to make myself who I am. And he's not all bad. I wish I'd realized it sooner. But with him, I can't let my guard down. He always goes back to try to dominate other people. You? You could have stuffed me into one of those balls, and you haven't even tried. This is a brave new world. It might be kinda similar, but it has such different people in it!"

Something deep down in me wondered if I was right, but then I looked up at him. His eyes were wide, and he was frowning. And he gave me the tiniest, saddest smile for just a second, and then he looked away.

I had to be right.

Part of me still hopes, on some level, that I was right.

Once we got off the bridge, we flew the rest of the way. Giovanni jumped a little when Golurk landed outside of the Pokemon Center in Driftveil, and recalled him quickly, escorting me into the Grand Hotel so fast I almost thought I was leading.

When we got to the elevator, I had to ask: "Dude, are you ok?"

"I was up all night looking for you. Of course I'm not 'ok,'" he snapped.

I didn't want to feel bad about that, but I kinda did.

"I'm going to call a friend of mine who's a nurse, take a nap, and I'll brief you on what I know after she checks you out." He shook his head. "One of us need to be well to plan anyhow."

I frowned. "Sounds like a plan."

When we got into the room, he asked me what I wanted to eat, and I asked for chili dogs. Of course. Then he glared at me and asked, "Yes, that's a nutritious thing to eat when you've been ill."

I scratched my head. "Uh… steak?"

His eyebrow went up. "A man of taste. How would you like it?"

"Medium-rare."

Then he dialed room service and ordered it.

I got a quick shower and washed my socks in the sink while we waited… I was all dusty from that house. When I came out, he was getting a tray from the door. He thanked whoever it was who delivered it, put it on the table, and yawned. "Here you are. I've called the nurse and she should be here in a few hours. I'm going to try and get a little sleep."

"Aren't you gonna eat something?"

"I grazed here and there the entire time I was looking for you. I'm far more tired than I am hungry." He walked toward a door in the room, one I figured must have been another bedroom. "Do keep it down. I'm a rather light sleeper." And off he went.

I didn't like the tension I felt, but I didn't see what could be done about it. Giovanni was obviously a really irritable person. I guess I'd be irritable too, if I had the background he did. I sat down at the table and ate my steak. After a minute, it was too quiet, so I flipped on the TV and tuned the volume way down.

I put it on a channel called Variety, and ate some mighty tender steak as I leaned all about how my star sign is apparently Klink. OK. Curious, fun, impressed by my knowledge? Check. The last line of their advice gave me a shudder though. Something about trying to endure, and all will be well. I wasn't sure why it bugged me, but it did, So between bites, I flipped the channel.

Then I tried out the Battle channel. There was some thing with a Watchog, and it looked like it was for kids, so I turned it to Celebrity, where some girl with pink hair was interviewing a woman with short black hair.

"What's the most interesting fashion you've ever seen, Elesa?" She asked. Man, her voice seemed familiar.

"It was actually a Pokemon," She explained, leaning forward. "Just the other day, I was going to the gym for a fashion show and I saw a trainer eating lunch with a Sandslash by the fountain."

I gulped.

"A Sandslash? They're a little drab, aren't they?"

"Not this one. He'd been dyed bright blue, and he had the cutest little red shoes. The contrast was magnificent! It reminded me of my latest outfit."

The girl in pink nodded. "I can see the resemblance, I guess. Did you ask the trainer where he got those shoes?

"I did!" The dark-haired woman smiled. "It turns out it wasn't his Pokemon! He was babysitting the Sandslash, whose name is Sonic, for Giovanni, from Kanto! Who would have thought, Giovanni, such style! I know it won't be much of a match, but I'd love to face them in a battle!"

I shook my head. Was this a repeat? Was that how the Shadows found me?

It was hard to finish my meal after that, but there was more to look forward to. A little bowl of round, pink and yellow berries… I dug in. They were sweet and kinda hot and spicy, all at the same time. Right up my alley.

They showed a commercial for some place called Pokestar Studios while I nibbled on the berries. N had mentioned it, and I kinda wanted to check it out. After we freed the Pokemon, maybe. As I popped the last one into my mouth, the girl in pink and a guy in green were sitting at a desk. "This just in. We've been asked to interrupt our show for some breaking news!" The girl chirped.

They guy nodded. "The recent rash of illnesses among Pokemon in Western Unova has finally been explained."

Illnesses? I hadn't heard anything about…

"Pokemon Researcher Bianca of Nuvema Town has discovered that a number of Pokemon who suffered the illness, including her own Musharna, had recently eaten EV berries grown in Western Unova. A pesticide is suspected. Until further notice, all authorities are advising that trainers avoid feeding these berries to their Pokemon." The girl recited.

"But Nancy," the boy commented, "Not all trainers know the EV berries?"

"Oh, that's right! How silly of me." Heh. She even kind acted like Bianca. "EV berries include Pomeg, Kelpsy, Qualot, Hondew, Grepa, and Tomato." Pictures of each of the berries came up on the screen.

…Hondew, Grepa, and now Qualot. Giovanni had given me all of three of those…

"Why are only EV berries effected, I wonder?" the guy asked. I liked him. Thinking the same as I was, kinda.

"I imagine it's because they're in such high demand! Trainers all want them to help their Pokemon get stronger, and to make them like them more. Feeding a Pokemon EV berries is one of the fastest ways to make it your friend."

My stomach lurched, and I wondered what I had just done. Was Giovanni giving me those berries to make me like him? Was this all part of some plan to seduce me, to make me pliable? Or had he really given me those berries to help make me stronger? Maybe he knew about the recall and the source and was keeping me sick on purpose, to control me… I could feel myself filling up with rage. I felt used. I felt…

"Anyway, enough bad news. Let's talk Celebrities," the guy said.

"Any good news, Cristoph?"

"Some funny news." he smiled into the camera, and a grainy xtransceiver picture of a man in a long dark coat popped up on the screen. It looked dark. "Someone in Lentimas Town sent us this picture in the night! They said this guy showed up in town around Sunset and spent night and day combing the mountain!"

It felt like something was squeezing my chest. You don't go looking night and day for someone you just want to use. He was insecure, that's all…

"That's not celebrity news is it?" She asked. "It's not like he's N or anything,"

"No, but he flew in and out on a Golurk, and was seen with an unusually colored Sandslash when he left. All signs point to Giovanni, the former Kanto Gym Leader."

"Wow. Not someone you expect to be out all night combing the mountain. Do you think he was investigating the Sonic Boom out in Undella Town?" The girl with pink hair brought a finger to her lip. "Or the reports of Team Plasma in Giant Chasm and Humilau?"

Then I head a knock, and jumped. The door.


	15. Charm

I sat there, frozen in place, afraid to answer. Afraid to move. So much information, and I had no idea what to make of it. I wished N were there… no, N was naive as ever. I wished Cheren were there. No, he was too cynical. Hugh. I wished I could talk to Hugh…

I heard movement from the bedoom, and Giovanni hurried out the door, still in yesterday's clothes. Still in the dusty pants, covered in soot from Reversal Mountain. He rubbed his eyes as he peeked into the peephole, and then he swung the door open. "You're two hours early."

"A sick Pokemon can't wait." A woman with dark hair came in, wearing a nurse's uniform. I thought it was kinda weird how nurses did that, but it was the thing around there. She stepped in past him, a small black bag at her side. "Now where is he?"

"At the table."

"Hey, Giovanni, I had a thought?" I said, unsure of the words as they came out of his mouth. She gasped, but said nothing, staring at me.

"Yes, Sonic?"

"There's a recall on EV beries right now. You know, like the kinds you've been ordering for me since we started hanging out together." I glared at him.

His shoulders drooped just a little.

"You know, the ones that make Pokemon like you more?" I crossed my arms.

"That isn't why I gave them to you," he snapped.

"You didn't mention that part."

"You acted like you were well-read on them." Suddenly he was almost shouting. "Are we partners, or are we Pokemon and trainer?"

I stood up, but for some reason the noise and movement made me feel sick. "I don't know, Gio, you tell me."

"Am I going to treat you like a little child, explaining everything the way I would to one of my Pokemon, assuming you know nothing? Is that not the very mentality we are trying to fight?"

He had a point there. And I… I did too. I dug deep to find it, struggling to ague with that logic. "But I'm not Pokemon. I'm from another world. I read a lot, but I only had two weeks and N's opinion to get caught up on your world! You should have known better."

"And so should you. Do you just eat anything anyone puts in front of you? Did N, in his infinite paranoia, teach you that?" He sneered.

The woman took a step back, toward the door.

"I was staving! I've lived on chili dogs and hamburgers for years, I can't run around eating leaves and berries! And I can't make money to go spend on real food because anyone might catch me! Like people tried, yesterday!"

I wanted to hit him.

I wanted so much to just walk over and punch him.

But something in me couldn't.

He seemed locked in place, too. "You can leave at any time you want. You know that. I just ask that you let me know, so I don't spend day and night combing a volcano, worried for your safety."

I glared. And then he walked over to the door. "Excuse me," he murmured, and the nurse stepped aside. He opened it, wide. "You're free to go. If you leave anything behind I'll mail it to Cheren. N's a bit hard to reach these days."

Oh man, choices. Walk out, find out he meant it, and not be able to come back. Stay, and always wonder if it was just some kind of act to get me to stay. Couldn't win.

I just stood there, dumbfounded.

"Well? You don't trust me. You haven't trusted me all this time. Why am I sitting here, putting a roof over your head and food in your stomach at my expense if you're going to keep lording my old reputation over me?" He growled, but averted his eyes; they sparkled in his shadow… Was he crying? "Even I don't deserve this kind of abuse."

I wanted to say it's not abuse. I wanted to tell him carrying on like this in front of someone was the abuse. But then I stood up, and my hand brushed the knife I'd eaten my steak with. He'd bought me a steak, no questions asked. Stopped me from getting something probably cheaper. These EV berries didn't sound like they were cheap, either. He'd taken me into his home.. searched the night for me… and then I called him out in front of someone he asked to help me?

"Oh geez, dude. Come on. You'd be just as wigged out in my place." I could feel my shoulders drooping. "I didn't mean it that way. I…"

I didn't really know what to say.

"Paranoia can be the sign of a sick Pokemon, you know," the nurse snapped at him. "Now, Sonic, is it? Let's go into the next room so I can examine you in peace."

I gave my best apologetic look to Giovanni and followed her into the bedroom I'd stayed in. She took me through a pretty routine little medical examination, took some samples. She seemed kind of inexperienced, but I didn't wanna say anything. She complained about my heart rate and blood pressure, but given what had just happened, they were pretty understandable, I thought. I kinda checked out for most of it after that.

Then she lead me back into the room. Giovanni was watching TV, sipping something amber-colored out of a shallow glass. He looked tired.

"Well, good news," the nurse chirped. "He's only showing very mild signs of the EV berry illness," she informed him. "A little malnourished, but otherwise, he gets a clean bill of health. A few days of rest and he should be just fine. Just don't leave him alone. I'd also recommend a massage; they help with tension." She took a deep breath. "He's smart for a Pokemon, just like you said. I'm honored you came to me."

"I knew I could count on your discretion. Shame that bimbo from Nimbasa has advertised his existence on national TV." He sipped.

"I'll go. If you need anything, you know how to get ahold of me."

She left, and I was left there, alone with him.

I stood there silent for a moment. He sat there, the same.

"Giovanni, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make a scene. I shoulda waited."

"And I should have made absolutely sure you understood what they were." He sipped again. "Let us not forget that my mistake was made because I overestimated your intelligence… and your mistake came from still mistrusting me."

I hung my head. "Geez man, what do you want from me? Are we in this together, or what?" The next words out of my mouth surprised me. I didn't expect them. I didn't even know I felt them. But I still said, "Are you going to throw me away like N did, too?"

He looked up at me, suddenly, his eyes going wide. "Sonic…"

"What?"

"I said that to my mother… about my father… And…" he looked away. "And my son said that to his mother of me."

I couldn't help myself. I walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, if anybody in this world can get along, it's two jerks like us." I waited until he looked up at me with those tired, black eyes. "I'll try and be more trusting. You try not to be so darn shady. And get some sleep; you look awful."

He nodded, smiling sadly. "Thank you, Sonic." He stood up and went into his bedroom, his coat still hanging on the back of his chair.

I sat down in his chair for a long while. Then I went to bed, too.

I had so many nightmares.

The worst nightmare… the most poignant of them… it was the one I had right before I woke up.

I was back in the interstellar amusement park, and Eggman had that ray of his turned on me. He was telling me to find my friends, and kill them. And I was walking. And I was looking. And my head was turning, my eyes flitting around. I tried to fight it. I tried to stop. But I couldn't. I couldn't even speak.

And then I found them, N and Hugh, running away from me. I forced myself to look back at Eggman, to say, do you really want this done? But it wasn't Eggman in the hovercraft. It was Giovanni.

I turned and looked back, launching myself at them, screaming inside.

But they weren't N and Hugh anymore. They were Knuckles and Tails.

Then I was screaming, and I was sitting up in bed, and my door was opening, and Giovanni was there, running in, kneeling at my bedside.

"Sonic? Sonic, what's the matter with you?"

I turned and looked at him, blinking. "Oh crap. It was a dream."

He sighed heavily. "A bad one."

"N asked me out on a date," I lied, smirking.

Gio didn't buy it, but he stood up, frowning. "Get yourself cleaned up. We're going to plan over breakfast and head out for Virbank when we're done."

I went and took a shower, and when I got out, breakfast was laid out on the table. My stomach growled. It made me think about my body for the first time all morning.. and you know, I felt pretty good. I sat down and started eating. Giovanni's black coat hung over the chair he was sitting in, and he was pouring over some paperwork, a hot plate in front of him, untouched.

"Good morning."

"Mornin." I sat down and dug in. "So, we're going to Virbank?"

"Yes." he finally put the papers down, spearing a sausage and starting to cut it. "A great many products are manufactured there. It's not known to many in Unova, but all of the region's pokeballs are made there. I suppose that's a secret they'd rather have kept from Team Plasma."

"So we're gonna… blow it up?"

He shook his head. "No. They would just build another one. We're going to sabotage the Pokeballs. We're going to disable the mechanism within them that allows Pokemon to be controlled.

I nodded. "And how are we doing that?"

"With this." He pulled out a flash drive and slid it over to me. Even from my short time with N, I recognized the "P" logo on it. Plasma. "A present from Colress. I've gone over the code with one of my old Rocket technical analysts, and it's legitimate. It will return all the appropriate checksums for the control devices while simultaneously deactivating the circuits. Pokemon put in these balls will be of sound mind and body."

I frowned. "So how do we get that into the pokeballs?"

"By using a program on that drive to hack the system and replace the firmware that's supposed to be written onto the balls with our own."

"I'm not really a computer guy, Gio."

"You're going to have to be. I'm too large and slow to slip past security."

I cocked my head to the side. "But I can?"

"Oh no, they'll notice you too. Which is why we're going in advance. Virbank City is also home to Pokestar Studios… and the largest costume archive in the world." He grinned. "You do have a flair for the theatrics, don't you? But we'll just take in a movie, and let one of my old agents let us in the back door."

I bit my lip. "OK, so why do I have to dress up? Why not just take credit for it?"

"Well, we have to do this in every region before the nature of the tampering is discovered. We have to get to Silph corporation in Kanjoh… Devon in Hoenn… Stark Island in Sinnoh… And let's not forget Pyrite Town in Orre."

"But they'll know someone was tampering…"

"No villainous team has ever spread outside the borders of its home region until now." He grinned. "If the Shadow Triad tamper with Pokeballs in Unova… no one will expect a Team Magma grunt to sneak into Devon in Hoenn… And so on."

I put my face in my hands. I didn't like this plan. Something about it was… off. But I coudn't place it. It was like I couldn't hang onto the thought. I just wanted to get started on it.

"So how do I use the flash drive?"

"I've been told it's 'idiot proof.'" He imitated another guy's voice, and I thought it seemed familiar. "'Even you can use it, Giovanni.'"

I frowned. "Well, that sounds kinda rude."

"Colress rather is. Quite a bit nicer than his former employer, however. If Ghetsis' reputation is to be believed, he made me look like a nice fellow."

That was it. Ghetsis. N. "Why not get N in on this?"

"Because N is nearly impossible to get ahold of without contacting a gym leader, and they're obligated to uphold the system as it is. I'm no longer a part of that system."

"Bianca?"

"I did some research on her. "Giovanni shook his head, chuckling. "Did you know she actually has a gym leader's license? She pulled herself off the waiting list. There was talk she would start a fire-type gym in Nuvema town when Drayden or Clay retired."

I was straining really hard at this point. I didn't want it to be just us. "Hugh?"

"Busy taking care of some Pokemon he got back from Plasma."

"Burnet?"

"A relative of hers has connections with Cypher and Snagem, who have stolen Pokemon before. I think one former villain is rather enough for our little adventure, don't you?"

I frowned. "Just you and me."

"There's that mistrust again."

I rolled my eyes. "Dude, this is a big deal. I should be skeptical."

"I suppose you're right, but there's little time for skepticism. We need to get our costumes and case the place tonight. We'll act tomorrow.

Giovanni looked at me, waiting for a response. I wasn't sure what to do. This was moving too fast. But… I nodded. "All right. We'll leave right after breakfast."

He smiled. "Sonic… a glorious new world awaits us. A world where Pokemon can finally be free. And it will all be because of you. You will be everything N ever wanted to be and more… your legend is about to unfold. You will have literally saved this world…" His face softened, and he added, more softly, "And in the process.. you will have saved the old man no one thought could be salvaged."

Well, when you put it like that…


	16. Amnesia

The flight over was simple and quiet… That didn't last.

We landed at the gates of the studios, and the hustle and bustle reached me even from out where we were.

Giovanni started walking in, recalling Golurk as he went. Me, I shuddered, but I strolled in after him.

I heard someone say, "That's the worst Sandslash costume I have ever seen."

I looked to the sound. A grown man was just staring at me. I did what any self-respecting Pokemon pretending to be human pretending to be Pokemon would do: I stuck my tongue out at him.

He muttered some curses about child actors and moved on.

There were people everywhere, scattered among trailers and displays… but what shocked me the most was the crowd gathered over by the statues. A little girl with pigtails was standing up there, signing autographs… I knew her. I'd seen her in the cave… She was the girl N had gone to save, the one who'd ended up saving him!

Giovanni saw me staring, because he commented, "While you were off fighting Shadows, that young lady became this region's champion. She's also, as I gather, quite an accomplished actress. There's talk she'll be cast as Hilda in a biopic of N's life."

"Who'll play me?" I asked.

"A suit actor and a Sandslash with motion capture devices, most likely. I rather hope they can get Cilan or Cheren to read for you. Your voices are similar enough."

I thought about that and shrugged. "I guess so."

Giovanni shrugged. "I know the nurse gave you a clean bill of health, but I'm a little concerned you might have another flare up. I'm going to get us tickets to a movie. It would look a little strange if you came up to the counter with me; this isn't Johto. …Point out where you're going to meet me once I've gotten the tickets."

I looked up at him. "That a good idea?"

"You're going to be in the monster movie with that awful Sandslash costume, Sonic. It's fine."

I looked around, and finally settled on a corner where I saw some action happening. "I'll be over there, watching."

He nodded. "Good. And I'll be right back."

I wandered over to where I saw the commotion.. there was a guy, a bunch of actors in green suits, and one guy with fluffy brown hair on top of his head… and an old bald man yelling at him.

Almost everyone else was looking away from it, but I watched. Unfortunately, by the time I got close enough to make out what they were saying, the fight was over, and the old guy was tending to the Pokemon. Fluffy brown hair guy sighed.

"You ok, dude?" I asked him, walking up.

"Huh, oh, I'm ok." He smiled down at me. "I'm only a rookie A.D., and that director's known for being really mad all the time."

… I cocked my head to the side. "So you're just… gonna let him yell at you?"

"Working for him is teaching me a lot." He smiled. "Just, if I ever get famous, I'll be nicer to my ADs."

I blinked. "Why would you let someone yell at you like that?"

He raised an eyebrow as he smiled at me, but it didn't seem surprised. "Kid, how old are you? Ten, twelve? Only really powerful people can really shrug it off when their bosses abuse them. If you don't pay your dues, you'll never get to be in their place."

"That Rosa kid, she pay dues?"

He laughed. "No, but she could stomp anyone here into next week if she disagrees with 'em. …Or worse, she could quit, and then where would this place be?"

I nodded. "Makes sense." I shuddered. I didn't know why that conversation bothered me, but it did.

"So…. what movie are you going to be in? The Big Monster sequel?"

I shrugged. "No, I'm trying to get a leg up on that N bio pic I keep hearing about. Rumor is he traveled with a shiny Sandslash who talks." I puffed my chest out a little. "If it happens before I get too old, heh, I could probably even do the voice."

"Did you make that costume?"

"Nah, my mom made it for me."

"I like the animatronic ears. How are you controlling them?"

I looked up. My ear was twitching a little bit. Uh oh. I got kinda twitchy when I started getting sick. But I lied, "Pressure sensor on my temple."

"Your mom must be a technical genius." The AD shifted his weight, picking up one foot for a second. Seemed like his foot was bugging him. "Too bad the era of animatronics is over. They're not cost-effective anymore."

I nodded. "Yeah. But I bet if a big wig like Rosa wanted animatronics in her movie, she'd get it."

He grinned. "Oh, that's why you're here. Prey on a poor little girl's love of cute little animals."

"Hey, I'm not… that little…"

"Well, you're the perfect height for a Sandslash." He glanced over at the director, who was still talking to the Lillipup. "Too bad you don't have a Lillipup suit with you. That mutt just won't cooperate."

I had an idea. I pulled out that berry Giovanni had given me. Actually, it was the berry Cheren traded me for Giovanni's. But the news had said it was only the EV berries, right? Lum berries weren't EV berries. "Hey, Lillipup!"

The dog bolted on the director, running over to me. "Hey, what? You're a Pokemon! But you talk like a human! What gives?" she asked. "What's going on?"

The director started yelling at me… I ignored him. "What gives? Why are you giving that director guy a hard time?"

"I'm hungry."

"If I give you a berry, will you cut him some slack?"

She nodded, hopping up a little. "Oh, I will, I promise!"

I held out the berry, and she ate it out of my hand. "Thanks Mister! Tell N I said 'Hi!'" And then she bolted back over to the director and sat obediently.

Huh. My reputation preceded me I guess.

"… Your mom made you that suit, huh?" the AD crossed his arms, smirking.

I returned the smirk. "I guess so."

"So you must be that Pokemon Elesa saw. Giovanni's nothing but bad news, you know. You should really get away from him while you still can."

I started to answer, but then, speak of the devil, I heard him call my name. Before I even realized it, I was saying, "Gotta jet. See ya!" to the AD and running over to him. I was able to convince myself to run at normal speeds, anyway.

"We should hurry," Giovanni told him. "If we go in now, we'll have time to get popcorn."

I did start to feel a little woozy during the movie, but I was better by the time it was over. Kinda weird.

The movie was even weirder. It was about some chick called the Sneasel Ninja who was a thief, and she was up against this robot cop guy. And it was a comedy. Weird stuff. The robot guy was a little stiff, but the kid, Rosa, she was actually a pretty good actor. I kept forgetting she was the same kid I heard screaming in terror in that cavern.

For his part, Gio seemed to love the movie. He laughed a lot as the kid got smacked around, but he huffed indignantly when she was arrested in the end. I thought it was interesting. Kinda funny to see a a movie where the bad guy was the good guy. Kinda fitting, too, given the circumstances.

I thought one of the riot cops, a lady, looked familiar… but I couldn't place her.

And as the credits rolled, Giovanni was up and out the door. I followed him. He stalked next door, wordless, and ducked into a large building with a studio number written on it. I closed the gap, and he handed me a small envelope. "I'll distract the guard."

I nodded.

Then he walked over, up some stairs. I hung back; It'd be no good if people saw us together before I took things. I saw him start chatting up a guard at the end of the balcony, and I took my chance. I walked slowly up the stairs, and then dashed through the open corridor between them. I heard mention of someone called Sabrina along the way.

…and when I went into the dressing room, it was full of people, who all turned and stared at me. A severe looking woman with long black hair stared at me the hardest.

I gulped. "I think I made a wrong turn at Albuquerque?"

The woman blinked, rising to her feet to look at me. "You… you're not from around here, are you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I'm just here to audition for that one part. Really."

"You're the Sandslash everyone's talking about," She accused. "The one the Pokemon think will save them."

I blinked. "Yea…ah?"

"I'm sorry," she said, turning to the two hairstylists working on her. "I was having a vision."

"But.. I saw him too, Sabrina?" the one stuttered.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I must have accidentally shared my vision with you. Let it pass."

I smiled, nodded at her, and opened the envelope.

They were pictures of costumes. Gray with a G, labelled Team Galactic. Red with an M, labelled Magma. Black with an R, Rocket. A weird thing with a helmet, labeled Cypher. And most disturbing of all, a near perfect copy of what the shadows had been wearing…

So I started looking through the racks of costumes... and eventually I found them. The Magma uniform stood out first; I found a Cipher getup right after that. Then I found the galactic ones. The Rocket uniform was hard to find, as there was a lot of black, and I ended up piecing the Shadows together from a few different pieces.

Then I found a window, hopped out it, stashed the uniforms behind a statue, and walked back in the Studio front door.

Giovanni nodded to the guard and came to meet me.

"How did it go?"

"The lady inside covered for me. No idea why." My head was starting to hurt again…

He nodded. "Her name is Sabrina, and she's psychic. She no doubt sensed your pure-hearted desire to help the Pokemon and decided to assist you." He grinned. "The guard radioed in there, and whatever his coworker in the dressing room saw, he didn't think it was a threat."

"So, let's come back for the uniforms after dark?" I shrugged. "I'm starting to feel kinda woozy again."

Giovanni frowned. "See? Perhaps it was a good thing we took in a movie. You need your rest."

He started leading me out of the studio lot. I followed, not thinking about it. "Yeah. Well, at least it was a good movie."

"I rather like that Sneasel Ninja. And I was rather impressed with the young lady's acting. She was wholly sympathetic, and yet at the same time quite bad."

I shrugged. "Eh, she just seemed rebellious and spoiled to me. I mean, good at it, but..."

"A lot of reviewers say that about Miss Rosa's performances. That she does best when she plays spoiled brats."

I thought about telling him they say he usually plays bad guys, but it didn't seem like a good idea. I didn't say anything.

As we passed through the gates, I turned and made one last look at the lot behind me. It was probably the last time I'd see it by day in a while. And what I saw there about stopped my heart in my chest.

A woman was walking across the lot, sandal-clad feet making a slapping noise with each step. Her pants didn't come all the way down her leg, and billowed out around her.. Her shirt was just a little tank top. And her hair… her long violet hair hung in a braid, except for one piece on top.

"Shahrah!" I shouted, before I realized what I'd done.

Then someone grabbed my hand and pulled.

We walked out of town, down a grassy path… And after a while, we stopped. Giovanni started gathering up sticks and leaves…

…so we were camping.

Giovanni asked, "Who's Shahrah?"

I shook my head, and started gathering materials for a shelter, too. It made my head spin, but I was ready to do anything not to show any more weakness. "She's a girl I met once, inside the Arabian Nights. The Genie of the Ring."

"Put that debris down, you foolish hedgehog. You're clearly too sick to be helping. Sit down, and I'll build our shelter."

I frowned. "No, dude, it really happened. I got sucked into the book…"

"I can believe a lot of things coming from a talking Sandslash, Sonic, but you did not get sucked inside a book and then see the woman here. You're hallucinating, or tired, or something like that. Go have a seat. Leave it to me; I will take care of everything. We can suss out your warped perception of reality once you're feeling a bit better." He he sucked in a breath, angry, the air chattering over his lip. "This is most certainly not the time."

I should have argued. I should have kept insisting I knew what happened, knew what I saw. But I didn't. So I sat down and watched him. Then I lay down. And then I was asleep.


	17. Quash

I did not sleep well that night.

We couldn't have a fire, so we had to climb into the shelter together. It was cold, so we had to huddle. And Giovanni promised one gay joke and he'd swat me.

So we huddled.

And I dreamed.

I dreamed of Shahra. I dreamed of Merlina. I dreamed of chasing them, of being chased by them. I dreamed of Erazor. I dreamed of the Black Knight. I dreamed of the black hole. I dreamed of the Time Eater. I dreamed of Hilda. I dreamed of lying in Tails' chair with a video game system on my face and a map to a castle on his tablet.

I kept on waking, screaming. Every dream ended in my death. And every dream I woke up and he was there, soothing me, telling me it'd be all right, it'd pass soon. His hand on my arm, the cup of his canteen at my lips. Once, I could see the sunlight filtering through the leaves, and I thought I heard him outside, weeping.

Then I woke from my sleep without screaming… to the sound of a phone call.

I heard it abruptly stop, and I heard him shout into the phone, "Hello?"

"Hi," came Yancy's voice, "Are you Sonic's friend?"

"You have the wrong number!" he snapped. He ended the call and threw the xtransceiver to the ground.

"Wha? Gio, what are you doing?" I asked, sleepily, blinking.

"Sonic, I know you're half asleep and you aren't your usual brilliant self besides, but think about this for a moment," he growled, crawling out of the shelter. "What were you doing the last time the Shadow Triad accosted you?"

"…I was on the phone with her."

"You were what?"

"On the phone." Oh crap. I could feel my chest tighten.

"With whom?"

"With her."

"Right. Now get up. We're hiding somewhere else."

I scrambled out of the shelter as quickly as I could. "Hey, what about my xtransceiver?"

"That's how they're finding you. Leave it."

He grabbed my hand and started to run… and after a second, I found myself keeping pace with him, easily, even as he panted. He let go of my hand and focused on pumping his arms.

I don't know how long we ran. I didn't expect a guy his age and his size to make it as long as he did, though. And I didn't expect myself to do as well as I did after the crap quality sleep I got, either. By the time he collapsed, winded, we were by a little pond.

"How did you figure it out?" I asked him.

"It's simple, isn't it? But you're too busy hallucinating. We have to get to the bottom of your mental health problems," Giovanni grumbled, breathing hard. "But if we don't act on the Pokeballs tonight, we may not get our chance."

"We'll have to get the costumes."

"I had an old lackey of mine from Icirrus City pick them up for us." Giovanni sat on a rock. "There won't be any time to case the place. You'll have to go in blind."

I nodded. "Not like I haven't done that before. Against Eggman. The guy who reminded me of you."

He sat down on a rock. "Tell me about him, Sonic. How did you end up fighting each other? What was he like?"

"Well..." I sat down, too. "He's a genius. Mad scientist. Makes robots."

"He sounds more like Colress."

"No, his personality's more like yours. He can't stand being defeated, but... he has a sense of honor in there, somewhere. And he's stronger and faster than he looks, a lot. You're a lot thinner than he is, though."

"Why does he do what he does?"

"Bad things happened to his family. His cousin was dying, so his grandfather did all this government stuff to try and save her." I leaned back a little, propping myself up on a nearby tree. "Even made my friend with amnesia to try to use him as a cure for her disease. But the government didn't trust him, and killed them all. Cousin, grandpa, everyone. And I think Eggman carries a grudge over that. But I don't know, maybe they did something to him too. I never asked." I sighed.

"It's not too late to ask, is it?" Giovanni leaned forward, toward me. "It sounds like you two fight rather a lot."

I shook my head. "There's no way to know when it might be too late. Not too long ago… around my birthday… He had this... time thing. The Time Eater. And it was tearing up Time and Space under his control, trying to get to me. It got so messed up, I even met my past self—the me from right after Eggman and I first started fighting."

Giovanni nodded. "Something similar to that happened here. A madman in Sinnoh tried to get his hands on the very Pokemon who controlled time, space and spirit. I don't believe he's been seen since."

I shuddered. "Everyone else got out. All my friends… were back at my birthday party. But Eggman, both Eggmans, past and present… I didn't see them for months. I mean, they hadn't been at the party… last time I'd seen Eggman before that was at his Interstellar Amusement Park, before the black hole sucked that up."

Giovanni's eyebrow shot up. "A black hole?"

"Yeah, he accidentally made a black hole. Almost sucked me up, if the Wisps hadn't saved me. Now that I think of it, they remind me of Pokemon more than I do." I looked down.

"Sonic… if you had killed him, you would have been more than justified. Time and space are not something to be trifled with. Even a man of my flaws understands that much."

I let my shoulders droop. "What if I had killed him? What if, someday, I go back to that world and no one's there to fight anymore? I really enjoyed a lot of those battles. And…" I looked away. "I'll have to settle down. Go back to school, or get a job. People are real grateful I saved the world the first umpteen million times, but eventually they'll say I'm resting on my laurels."

Giovanni looked away. "I suppose it isn't like you can do what Red does. After deafeating me… well, battling Pokemon is a sport here. He kept doing the same thing. Took on the Elite Four and Champion of his league… Guarded the mountains from my lackeys for a long time. Now he's here in the Champion's tournament. I would like a rematch."

I crossed my arms and put them on my knees. "Maybe here I can make a difference. Maybe I can keep travelling, helping people wherever. Maybe I'll never have to stop and go, 'ok, I have to completely change who I am now.'"

"There's a shift change at Virbank in twenty minutes." He coughed. "I can make it that far in that time."

"Let's get this over with."

It didn't take us long to find his friend with the accent.

It didn't take me long to slip on the pants, the wig. Aside from my height, and my color, I looked about perfect as I checked myself out in the water.

It didn't take me long to slip into the complex. There were big balls, tanks everywhere. Everything was overgrown. Still, it didn't take me long to find the door to Devon's Unova Plant hidden behind a tank. It didn't take me long to open the door, just like the little kid did in a video Giovanni showed me.

And it didn't take me long to see the Magnezone train its eyes on me, locking on.

"Hello! Sonic, is it? How very nice to see you again. You don't look so well."

The man stepped out into view, white and black and blue. That weird blue thing was still hooked around his face… It was the same guy who was talking to me at Giant Chasm while N and Rosa fought for Kyurem. …And aside from being a little cleaner, he looked the same as he had there. Geez, how long had that been?

And three shadows blinked into view around him him. One, two, three. All three of them. The Shadow Triad.

"I should have known you'd betray us," I snapped, sliding one of my feet back into a fighting stance.

He shook his head. "You act like I had an allegiance to start with. Sonic, my loyalty lies with science. What you and Giovanni were about to do was a scientific catastrophe. It can only end contrary to your wishes. And no matter how much I tell you that…" He chuckled sadly, eyes falling a little. Was he guilty? "You're incapable of believing me, now."

I frowned. "Try me."

"Giovanni took the drive I gave him to an ex-rocket computer scientist and had him make modifications. You won't be liberating the Pokemon." He adjusted his glasses. "You'd be putting an override in the pokeball code that would allow him to take control of anyone's Pokemon. You would be promoting rather than ending slavery."

I growled. "Oh yeah, two villains pointing fingers at the other, and you want me to believe the one who sent his lackeys after me?"

"We're not his lackeys," the one shadow insisted.

"We serve Ghetsis," came the other.

"But we repay our debts," answered the third.

"Your debts to Colress?" I raised an eyebrow.

He chuckled. "I've done these three no favors."

"N shielded us from the authorities," the one said.

"N helped us take care of Ghetsis when we came for you."

"N has Concordia and Anthea looking after him now."

I shook my head. That couldn't be true. It wasn't true. "N told me how to fight you guys. He'd never send you after me."

"He thought you might listen."

"He said we'd have to get your attention first."

"He was too afraid for Reshiram to come himself."

I shuddered. "Bull. That's a load of bull! N would never trust all of you." I took a step backward.

"Not so fast, Sonic," Colress warned. "My Magnezone will use Thunder on you if you try to leave."

I looked around the room. It was definitely a computer room… I could see the terminal Giovanni had told me about. But the jig was up. Even if I managed to get around the three shadows and make it to the computer, I wouldn't make it out. I might not even finish. And then the Magnezone, ready to zap me if I so much as moved.

Then I remembered… Everyone insisted I was a Sandslash, a ground type. Ground beats electric!

I might not have been able to do what I came for… but I could get out alive and come back another day.

I turned on my toes and bolted out the door. Then I felt it: the crackle of thunder, starting in my head, reaching down through me, making every muscle cramp, the horrific burning pain. So much for my theory.

By the time it was over, though, I was outside, and the pain was gone as fast as it came. No damage.

I really was a ground type.

I dashed as fast as I could through the industrial complex, weaving through the trainers and workers who'd come into to assume their shifts. "GIOVANNI!" I shouted, "Run! Colress!"

I ran face-first into someone, knocking him over. It took me a second to get up, but I felt so bad when I saw who it was.

A mop of black hair… Hugh. Hugh had come here to help, To stop the Shadows and Colress, and I'd probably hurt him.

I ran my fingers over his chest, lightly. It didn't feel like anything was broken. He looked up at me. He was just stunned.

I pushed him onto his side, 'cause I read you're supposed to do that when people are hurt, and stood, ready to defend him. He didn't stand a chance against the Triad. It was my fault. It was—

"Sonic! Leave him there this instant! We have to get out of here, now!" came Giovani's voice, ringing through the air like a bell.

I started to shout at him, to say, no, I can't leave him. He's just a kid. But the words wouldn't come.

I started to move, and I couldn't stop myself. Before I knew it, I was walking away from Hugh. Because if Giovanni said it, it was right. Because Giovanni knew best. Because…

"Sonic!" Hugh called to me, winded.

As I looked back, the Shadows appeared at Hugh's side. Two of them knelt, grabbing Hugh by the arms, gently rising with him.

What the…? I stopped in my tracks.

"Sonic, stop being so foolish! We need to go! Come here!"

"You're not getting away from me, Mister!" came a voice I didn't expect to hear… definitely not in that tone. I snapped my head that way. A blur of orange and green came up behind him, her face contorted in an anger I couldn't even imagine. Bianca?! A purple weasel ran up by her side, eyes intent on Giovanni.

"Bianca? what are you doing?" I called to her.

"Buying time!" She called.

"Buying time for who?" I asked.

"For me," came a voice from behind me.

It sent a chill down my spine. Something deep inside my heart soared and grew cold at the same time. It took all the effort I had to turn around to face him… to see him there, his outstretched hand, bracelets glinting in the sunlight… and tears running down his face.

"N." I wanted to drop to my knees, but I couldn't.

"I'm so sorry for my behavior. If I had known it would end like this… I would have let you see my sorrow."

"N… I don't understand. what's happening?"

"We haven't got time for this! Sonic, grab me and run!" Giovanni ordered.

I felt the need rise up in me… I felt my arms and legs starting to move. I fought it with everything I had. Why would you ever believe Giovanni over N? I asked myself. If everyone you trust is against Giovanni, don't they at least deserve you to hear them out?Reason screamed at me…

…but my heart didn't listen. In my heart it was the same as if it were Tails or Knuckles begging me to leave. All I could spit out was a "Sorry" before I turned, grabbed Giovanni by the hand, and ran.


	18. Conversion

We were in a completely different town by the time I had to stop.

I didn't have to stop becuase of me. I could have kept going until I hit water, especially after I kicked those stupid pants off on the bridge. I had to stop because of Giovanni, clutching his chest from trying to keep up.

Why, I don't know. He didn't tell me to stop, not exactly. I guess I really care somewhere deep down. Or maybe that's part of whatever he's done.

I let go of his hand, and he collapsed to his knees. Something in his coat made a metallic clang as it hit the ground.

"What have you done to me?!" I demanded, snarling.

"I haven't done anything," he gasped, taking a moment to catch his breath. "Except go into Giant Chasm after Team Plasma left. I took the device that that green-haired madman was using to control Kyurem… I took it for myself."

I wanted to kick him while he was down. That's not a feeling I have very often. But my legs wouldn't listen. Something deep down in my mind kept going, No, don't. He's family. You love him.

"And you've been using it on me!"

"I haven't used anything; it's a passive device. It works on any Pokemon not currently registered to a Pokeball by proximity." He spat into the dirt. "When you came back to me after eating with Cheren… I knew it worked on you as well."

I growled, so low and angry, deep in my chest, that I felt it in my legs. I could feel eyes on me. "You… you're worse than Eggman ever was! You did all of that, had me going all that… just so you could control me?" I took a deep breath. "I wish I could do to you what I thought I did to Eggman!"

He looked up at me, grinning, a wild look in his dark eyes. "But you don't mean that, Sonic. You won't mean that for long, anyway. The longer you spend with me, the more power I have over you. And the better I treat you, the harder it is for you to fight. Even leaving my presence, even for moments, seems to have an effect! You had your first little bout of sickness long before I fed you that first Hondew berry."

I roared in anger. Not even at the height of the Werehog, not even at my most Unleashed, did I ever feel that mad. I reached out my hand to strike him… but It stopped inches from his face.

"No! No, this can't be happening!" I took a step back. "I can't even fight you! After you lied to me!"

"It wasn't all a lie," He looked away. "You really have been kinder to me than anyone else, and I know at least some of that is truly your character, not just the effects of this device." He sighed, sadly. "I wouldn't have taken anything back, even if I'd thought I could never control you."

"The important stuff was a lie, then! Saving the Pokemon, saving the world! It was all a load of crap!" I tried to run, but my legs wouldn't move.

"There's no time for this. We can argue and fight once we're safely in Orre, where most Pokemon can't follow us. Pick me up, in your arms this time, and carry me back to the port in Virbank."

I started to obey, but then I felt that burning again, that terrible shock from my head to my toes. And with it.. I felt something small, very small, plow into my side.

"Red! I told you he was ground type," came a familiar voice.

I looked over toward the source of the noise; I could see out of the corner of my eye that Giovanni was looking, too. There were four of them there. Two I only recognized from the books N showed me: A man with long red hair whose name I knew was Alder, and a man in a red baseball cap whose name I knew was Red. The other two I knew much better. A man in a red tie, Cheren. And a woman in black and white, Burnet. And between them and me was a small yellow Pokemon… a Pikachu.

"How did you find us here?" Giovanni snapped.

"Sonic's Idol friend spread some reports of a Pokemon outbreak on Route 20 for us," Cheren explained, smirking. "Nancy wishes you'd told her you were a Pokemon, Sonic."

"Cheren… Burnet… Help me!" I begged. Maybe there was something they could do…

"Sonic, use drill run on the rodent!" Giovanni snapped.

It was over before I'd even had a chance to fight it. I spin-dashed into the electric mouse, and it cried out, falling. I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I stood. "I don't want this! Giovanni, stop it!" I turned to look at him.

"No. Now help me up!"

I started to move toward him, but then there was a cacophony of voices; I could only pick out snippets. Blastoise… Serperior… Accelgor… Three pokeballs blossomed open before my eyes. Behind me, I could hear other, less familiar voices, and more popping noises. Had the whole town come out to ambush us?

"I hope you realize this is against the rules," Giovanni snapped.

"That's pretty rich coming from you," Cheren snapped back, patting the Serperior before him on the head.

"Give it up, Giovanni!" the red-haired man snarled from behind the Accelgor. "Let the boy go."

"Never! Sonic… The woman! Grab the woman, she doesn't have a Pokemon."

My body, my mind, started to obey, but then I held myself down, focusing everything I had on keeping myself still. "No! That's wrong!" I snapped, grunting. It seemed like every thought I had other than staying in place gave that childish need to please a little more footing in me.

"While you have a chance! Now!"

I used my strength to throw myself on the ground, as hard as I could. Every inch, every second I could put between me and standing up to hurt Burnet was worth something. The impact barely hurt, but I wanted it to hurt more. If I could just knock myself out he couldn't use me against anyone, 'cause I didn't know how much longer I could fight it.

"Sonic, no!" Burnet's voice called out above the others.

Cheren stepped forward, around the Seperior, walking toward Giovanni. I couldn't see much as I tried to push my head into the ground… but I saw him get close, and then go down.

"What do you think I am?" he hissed, "Some defenseless old man?"

Cheren moaned in pain.

And then I felt a hand on my shoulder, another on my face. "Sonic, stop!" Burnet begged me. Her hands were so warm, even though the gloves. I looked up into her warm amber eyes…

That close, I couldn't disobey his orders. I grabbed her arm, gentle as I could. That's all he said to do, grab her arm. The need subsided. "Help me…"

"Remember that mirror?" she soothed, reaching into a pack at her side, pulling something out. "I need you to look in the mirror."

"Don't do that!" Cheren shouted, still sounding pained. I thought I heard him getting up behind me. "What if it makes him stronger?"

"Break it!" Giovanni hissed. "Break the mirror!"

She placed it into my hands… and I wanted to break it. I wanted to smash it to bits.

But just one peek… one peek first, before I did…

I screamed at what I saw.

I couldn't believe it.

…I saw a human boy…

I saw Shahra…

I saw Merlina…

I saw thousands of others… Purple haired women, versions of her from every story I'd ever read…

I saw everyone I'd ever met staring back at me… Knuckles… Tails… Eggman… Shadow…

It was like the universe was getting smaller before my eyes… I saw everything in the mirror, and I knew that everything was me. Everything in a vast darkness, that was full of light at the same time… this strange dreamland outside of reality, outside of time, deep inside my heart.

"What is this?" I asked, although something told me the words never made it to my lips. "How can I be you?"

"We're your anima, Sonic," Merlina informed me, clutching her staff.

"We're the opposite in you," Shahra explained, turning away.

Another woman simply nodded at me… One with a long ponytail piled on top of her head. And I knew she was me, too, maybe in a more immediate way than the other ones.

"We're all the parts of you you can't deal with," Shadow told me.

"We're all the parts of you you see in other people," Eggman quipped, a knowing grin on his face.

"What the heck?" I tried to take a step back from them, and I found I was in a dark place, alone with all these people… all these people who were really me. Blackness was encroaching around me… "What does this have to do with the mirror? I don't understand!"

"You see the truth in the mirror…" Tails told me.

"But you see more than most…" Knuckles shrugged.

I tried to back away. "Leave me alone! I just want to stop hurting my friends. What do all of you have to do with that?"

"So take your incarnate forme," said the girl with the ponytail, finally.

"Incarnate?"

Burnet's voice came from behind me. "There's the Therian forme and the Incarnate forme…"

"I.. I can't change forme without the emeralds! Or the rings. Or the swords!" I excused myself, backing away into the darkness… I could feel Burnet's warm hands… in the distance, I could hear Giovanni's voice, compelling me to act, compelling me to do something, snap out of it.

"Stay with me, Sonic, please, I beg you," Shahra pleaded. "I'll do anything!" She threw herself to the knees, eyes sparkling.

"No… no! Don't be so desperate!" I snapped at her, my hand flying to my chest.

And suddenly the green emerald was there in her place. as if she'd never been.

"If you stay here forever, you'll never have to go back to face them. They'll always be safe from you," Merlina informed me.

I shook my head. I was starting to understand now. "Nothing lasts forever! And even if it could, what would be the point?"

The violet emerald fell in her place.

"How can you ever hope to surmount the past?" Shadow taunted me.

"One day at a time!"

As he became the yellow emerald, I turned to the ghost of Eggman. "And you! I'm not going to keep making the same mistakes over and over. I'm not going to feel like I have to!" Red fell in his place.

I rounded on Tails. "I can be my own man!"

Then it was Knuckles' turn. "And I won't be fooled twice, either."

And then last… I came face to face to those blue eyes… that tall hair. So unlike me, except the near-silence… And yet she was everything I was supposed to be. I had taken her place. Or was she just a universe's way of filling mine?

"I won't let anything get between my friends and me! Not time, not distance, not hard feelings, not death!"

The white emerald fell into my hands.

Seven emeralds… all the faces were gone. Just me.. There was nothing to see in the mirror, except what I put there. Reality was limited, but I was not.

I closed my eyes and opened my heart. I felt the emeralds rise and begin to spin around me… yet they were more powerful than the chaos emeralds could ever be. The chaos emeralds were pieces of real power, real energy, out in limited reality. They were bound by the laws of physics and magic, bound by the matter around them. No, these emeralds were different. They were every struggle I had ever felt, every problem I had ever faced. They were everything I had ever overcome, everything I was overcoming, everything I would overcome. They were the limits I had surpassed. They were the limits I'd come to be outside of. They were symbols of all the fights I'd fought without fighting, all the threats I'd stopped without killing, all the tears I'd let go of before I shed them.

They were what really makes me a hero; forget my speed. And here, in my mind, finally I could grasp them, and use them as I ought… finally, I could be unbound from physics, from magic, from myself.

The emeralds spun, faster and faster… But I needed rings. I needed symbols of the rings. I thought about calling every moment of love I'd felt from my friends, every moment of inspiration… but then I realized, I didn't need it. This was my reality, my mind. I didn't need rings here. I don't need emeralds here, except for my own mental limits, my own self-imposed ties to the way things really are. I opened my heart to the emeralds, willing the power to come… I felt the golden fire wash over me, from my head to my toes, lifting me up above the ground that wasn't the ground, freeing me from that most basic law of gravity. I felt every weakness, every fear, every regret, every bit of anger melt away.

Super Sonic makes things happen.

And anything I wanted, I was going to make happen.

I wanted only one thing: Freedom.

My freedom. The Pokemon's freedom. N's freedom. Even Giovanni's, if you got right down to it. I just wanted everyone to be as free as I felt in that moment.

Making reality match my heart? That was a challenge. But it'd been done before.

I just needed to look away from the mirror…

I just needed to pull out of my self-exhaltation…

I just needed to go back to reality…

The violet emerald began to waver. I just needed to let this moment end. I just needed to let go of that last fear and face a body that might not cooperate with my mind, a basic need for approval that might run against my ideals.

Ideals.

That's it. That's what we were.

…and who can argue with that?

I looked away from the mirror, and everyone gasped.


	19. Miracle Eye

The first thing I noticed is that I felt… free.

I still cared about Giovanni. I still didn't want to see him hurt.

…but I also wasn't going to listen to a damn word he said.

The second thing I noticed is that I felt tall. Really tall. Probably as tall as some of the others.

The third thing I noticed is that I was naked, and suddenly that was a problem.

The fourth thing I noticed is that I was still in Burnet's arms.

Her face turned red, and she looked away.

But I stood up anyway, and pointed at Giovanni with my still-gloved hands.

"Giovanni… you're a jerk." Then I turned to Cheren. "You seem to be the one in charge here. Can we get him put away for this? I don't want him doing this to some other unsuspecting Pokemon."

Cheren's face was turning almost as red as Burnet's. "Part of why were herded the two of you here to Floccesy was so we could record his confession. Um... can someone put some pants on him, please?

"Before N gets here," Giovanni quipped.

Red rolled his eyes. Then he looked at me… you know, me… real close, and whipped his backpack off. He started rifling through it.

I thought about covering myself with my hands, but then I thought better of it. What did it matter if people saw? What did I care? I wasn't under mind control anymore, and now I really could save the Pokemon. As long as I could still understand them…

"Hey, Serperior?"

He looked at me. "Yes, Sonic?" He asked.

"Why do you follow Cheren?"

The serpent tilted his head, noncommittal. "If you get down to it, I was given to him by Professor Juniper. But… We're friends. We talk, although he can't understand. We watch TV together. We study together. I would like him without the Pokeball's influence. Pokeballs don't make you happy, just devoted."

I nodded. "Thanks." Then I turned back to Giovanni. "You couldn't understand that, but he said he says he's friends with Cheren. Doesn't matter how they got together. I know you don't really care about me, Giovanni… but I really thought of you as a friend. I'd want you to be happy anyway, because you're a person." Then I walked over and crouched down by him, looking him in the eyes. "But I will never, ever be abused like that again. And I'm never going to let you abuse someone else, either."

I wasn't sure I understood what I was doing. I don't really know where it came from. For just a moment, I felt like someone else. But I pulled the mirror out in front of me and flashed it in his face.

"No! Sonic, what are you doing? No!" He screamed, and in a flash of light, a strange rock clattered to the ground in Giovanni's place, the jacket falling around it.

Cheren plucked it out of the pile. "An Odd Keystone. A Spiritomb. Dark and ghost... stuck inside a stone."

"Like his heart." I shrugged, a chill wsahing over me. "Wonder if I coulda pulled the sword out."

Red just shook his head at me.

Alder picked up the jacket and reached into the pockets… he pulled out a strange metal thing with a big blue P carved into it. "What's this?"

"That's probably the device Colress told me about. It was in Ghetsis' scepter," Cheren said. "Sonic, I'm sure someone here has a baseball bat. Would you like to do the honors?"

"I should probably put some pants on first."

Red triumphantly pulled a pair out of his backpack. I hoped they fit. Kinda breezy.

And then I heard a voice that still sent a pang of something through my chest from far off. "Sonic! Sonic!"

All eyes turned toward him, and the party behind him. I held the mirror down below my waist, shiny part toward me, with one hand, and waved with the other.

"Who are you?" He asked, eyebrow raising, green hair flapping behind him as he ran toward me. "Where is Sonic? Where is Giovanni?"

I shook my head. I wonder if my hair waved the way his did. Then I scratched my nose. "Giovanni's in between a rock and a hard place," I offered, smirking. "As for me, well, if were- means man, I guess I really am a were-hog."

N's jaw about fell off his face.

Bianca ran up behind him, and started giggling, her face turning red.

Then Red cleared his throat.

"Aw come on, man! Way to ruin a moment!" I shot a mock glare at Red and took the pants out of his hands, slipping them on behind the mirror. It was kinda hard to navigate without dropping anything, but I pulled it off.

"That's impossible," N said. "There's no formula to change a Pokemon into a human…"

"I was never really a pokem-" I started.

And then Colress' voice rang out behind him. "Humans don't have pointy ears on top of their head, N."

As I was buttoning my new pants, which were a little too tight around the legs, I felt something on my head. Something covering my ears. I looked over next to me, and Red brushed his hands together and smirked, giving me a thumbs up. His hat was gone. Which means he'd put it on me…

N walked up to me, stepping close, too close. "You can't be Sonic. Even if you were, how would I know it was really you?"

"When we met," I told him, "You were talking to an Onix about humans littering the cave."

I wasn't prepared for what came next.

It was like I was under attack. His arms wrapped around me, wrists and chin on my bare skin, squeezing me so tight with a strength I never knew he had…

I wrapped my arms around him, and squeezed back. "Hey, hey, it's ok. I'm here now, aren't I? You and your friends saved me."

"Cheren…" he let go of me, pulling away, looking away. "Cheren deserves most of the credit. He did all the planning.. contacted Colress… arranged the media leaks.. everything."

Cheren did his best to be looking in a different direction. I looked back at N, smiling.

"Yeah, N, but you know what? I would never have believed any of you were really on my side if you hadn't been there." I shrugged. "Faith is a lot more important than strength in times like these. You oughta know that more than anyone."

"Maybe this is cynical of me," Alder said, finally speaking up, "But maybe we should put a shirt on him before Nancy gets here."

"But she has a crush on Elesa," came a voice from behind Colress, one that sounded a little too much like mine. We all turned to look for the source, and Colress stepped aside, revealing one of the Shadows.

N put his face in his hands and shook his head.

"We have to do something while we care for your father," another Shadow snapped.

The four of them began to argue like kids... and Alder disappeared inside a house. He came out a second later, and handed me a shirt. I put it on, eagerly. I wasn't sure how much of it was because I was cold... and how much of it is because I felt too exposed already.

It didn't take long for someone, I think Alder, to produce a baseball bat. I felt tired as I raised it over the little device, but as soon as I hit it, I was immediately reeling. It seemed being human-ish all of a sudden didn't completely protect me from its effects. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I stumbled.

"Some Pokemon experience a withdrawal," Colress informed me, as my hands went to my head. "The bouts of illness you reported were likely that. There was no EV-berry sickness."

"That was my idea," Bianca piped up. "I could tell Giovanni was using them on you to make you more pliable, and that was the best way I saw to stop it."

I nodded, trying to put on a calm face even as I fought not to wobble in place. "So why did I turn human anyway? Heh. Sonic the Human. That's weird." I looked at my hands… they didn't look that different, but they were so small compared to the rest of me, even though they were the same size as before.

"Why don't we make some tea, and everyone can fill you in," Alder offered.

I nodded, and I let them direct me into the house.

There was hustle and bustle as everyone got settled. The house was way too small for all those people, and some of them, like the Shadows and Red, ducked out so it'd be easier to fit everyone in one room. As soon as he put the tea in front of me, the red-haired man, Alder, was gone. N was sitting next to me, closer than I really liked, but he was kind of awkward anyway. Burnet had put herself on the other side of me. She was at the right distance.

"Why don't you guys take it from the top?" I asked.

Every pair of eyes in the room except mine turned to Cheren, and I followed them.

His face was turning a little red. "I… I've come to realize that being a strong trainer isn't everything. Sometimes it's more important to be able to put things together than to beat them down. Ever since Team Plasma's been active again, I've been trying to facilitate people being where they need to be, doing what needs done." He looked to his right and smiled. "Like Bianca did two years ago."

She grinned.

"Sonic, I thought your attachment to a man like Giovanni seemed strange. He's… awful, everyone agrees. But you… you didn't seem to grasp your own suspicions. So Bianca and I called you."

Bianca nodded enthusiastically. "I've learned a lot of things about Pokemon studying under Professor Juniper, things other people have a hard time picking up. Things like how much Pokemon like their trainers, and things like how hard Pokemon have been working. Your cognitive abilities took a nosedive, which told me Giovanni was using EV berries on you, to make you like him."

"So Bianca and I got to work. Bianca contacted Ingo and Emmet to find you and N, and I went out to Colress. I actually had to hide under a panel while Giovanni came in asking for a way to free Pokemon from Pokeballs."

"I found that rather amusing," Colress shrugged. "But, I didn't believe it for a second. I gave Giovanni the means to do what he asked, but I also contacted old Team Plasma. They put me in touch with N, and we agreed to ask the Shadow Triad for a favor."

Cheren grinned. "Then I asked Elesa to call you out on TV, so everyone would know you were with Giovanni, and he couldn't keep you a secret."

"And I faked reports of an EV training sickness! We'll go on air explaining it was part of a Pokemon abuse sting later today."

"Nancy from Celebrity Channel actually approached me through Rosa's friend Curtis," Hugh explained. "She knew something funny was going on when her friend was in Undella Town, then she heard there was a huge sonic boom there. She's pretty clever. She agreed to help us get the interviews on air… kinda hard with Rosa becoming champion."

That's when N spoke up, looking over to me. "That's where I come in. I went and checked the chasm... and the machine there had been tampered with, replaced with a similar shell with no machinery inside. I knew that someone had taken my father's device, though I knew not who… until Terrakion described him to me. I feared what might happen if Reshiram were to come into contact with the device… So, in light of my recent confusion…" He looked away. "In light of all those things that you, a hero of ideals, saw more clearly than the hero of truth… I asked Reshiram to go with Rosa."

My jaw fell. "N! …Seriously?" That shocked me more than anything. I bit my lip.

"I would rather my friends be safe than by my side." He looked back at me. "It was difficult convincing him. The rituals, the feelings... We will always be friends, but I knew her endeavors would keep her busy, and keep him safe."

"Sabrina let us know when you raided the dressing room," Cheren changed the subject, smiling sadly. "That's when we set up the sting at Virbank. Half of us there, and the stronger trainers here in Floccessy Town. Then we had Christoph and Nancy use the media to create a rush of trainers along the route… effectively reducing the amount of routes you could take out of the city. We herded you here."

I nodded. "There's one thing I don't understand, and that's the Reveal Glass. How did it work? How did you know it would work? Why did I turn human?" I looked right at Burnet, and she smiled.

"The reveal glass shows you your true forme… but truth is mutable. It can show you many things." She shrugged. "If you expose Tornadus, Thundurus, or Landorus to the mirror, they can change physically. There are two basic forms they take: the Incarnate forme, that they take appearing in the wild here… and the Therian forme they assume in the Dream World."

"Therian?"

"Therian means animal, Sonic." she smiled. "Since you were an animal with features like a man… your incarnate form is a man with features like an animal."

I looked at the table in front of me… at the keystone laying there. I could still feel him in there… and part of me wanted to pick him up and never let him go. "Will all humans turn into that?"

She shook her head. "Very few humans change at all upon looking into the mirror. Those who do usually stay human," She said with a smirk. "We still don't understand it. But… Sonic, when I met you, you didn't strike me as a Pokemon. You reminded me a little of my researcher. You seemed human. I thought… maybe if we showed you the reveal glass, it might bring out any humanity in you that might protect you from mind control."

I nodded. "Well, you were right." I traced my hands along the keystone. "What happens now?"

"It would be unwise for you to keep the keystone," Colress advised me. "Emotions don't just change even after dramatic physical changes. You might be tempted to wake him up… I recommend giving the stone to Red."

I nodded. "Can he hear me?"

"Probably," Burnet answered, shrugging.

I traced a finger down it. "Sorry, dude. But you should have known better."

I sipped my tea and let them keep at me with the details. And at some point, I nodded off right there in the kitchen.


	20. Return

I woke up in a bed. I was stiff, I was tired, and I felt weaker than usual. But… I was free.

When I rose, I saw a stack of clothes sitting out for me. My familiar shoes and gloves were there, but there were black pants, a blue shirt, and baseball cap with them.

I took them in my arms and went looking for a bathroom.

It took a while to figure out how to wash the hair, and when I did it stuck striaght out… heh, kinda like my spines. I got a good look at myself in the mirror. I looked like a pretty average guy. Crazy brown hair, bright green eyes, and just the slightest blue tinge to my skin. I think I make a pretty cool human, personally.

Then I went downstairs, to see who I had to thank.

N and Alder were there, talking about something. N clammed up when he heard me approach, but Alder didn't. I heard something about Ghetsis before he greeted me. "Morning!"

"Hey… Thanks for the clothes. They… fit!" I tugged at the shirt. "That's new."

"Sonic…" N smiled.

Alder sipped a cup of tea. "You know, people are talking about about the Sandslash named Sonic. If a human trainer has the same name, that's going to raise some eyebrows.

"Hilbert, then," I said. "Hilbert the Human."

N made a face. My turn to make him uncomfortable.

"You'll need a last name, " Alder suggested.

I thought about that… there was really only one answer to that. "Johnson."

N looked confused, but I think Alder got where I was going. He nodded. "Son of John."

"So… " I sat down next to them, hoping I could cut Alder off before he explained who John was, just in case N didn't understand. I was sure that taking a name based on Giovanni instead of his own "Harmonia" would hurt his feelings, and I didn't really wanna listen to him pout. Besides, I knew it would stand out too much. "Are we still going to liberate all the Pokemon? You and me?"

N's face lit up. "You still…"

"What? Still understand them? Still think of myself as one? Still want to do what we talked about when I first got here? All of the above, man!"

He smiled. "I… I'm having Amanita, the computer technician from Castelia? I'm having her look at Colress's code, to make sure it won't make Pokemon more susceptible to control instead of less." He looked out the window. "If everyone here bands together to request it be modified… Champions from two regions or more… It will be hard to resist. We can travel, campaigning for it. And I can look for Hilda… so I can tell her how I feel."

I grinned. "But come back here every so often. Resh will miss ya."

He smiled. "I will. I rather enjoy battling with Rosa."

"Oh, S… I mean, Hilbert," Alder's eyes widened, as if remembering something. "Before I forget… Burnet says you can keep the mirror, in case you need to go back to your old forme."

I nodded. "My true forme. And yeah, I will, eventually. Probably when all the Pokemon are free and I go home."

N looked disappointed at that, but I shrugged it off. My turn.

"You'll need a Pokemon team, now," Alder noted. "Trainers will want to fight. And we're working on getting you balls with no imprints."

That kinda blew my mind, the idea of bossing other people around. I tried to recover with a good question. "How do you go about getting a Pokemon, anyway?"

N chuckled. "You throw a ball at the Sword of Justice waiting for you in the backyard."

"Cobalion?"

"Yes."

I rolled my eyes. "That's gonna be fun to explain."

"Giovanni's Golurk and Sandile have asked to go with you, as well. I'm sure one of the Pansears we befriended at Lostlorn Forest or one of the Seakings from the Shrine would be interested in accompanying you as well. And..." N looked away. "Joltik might not mind having a trainer. He'll be happy if you ask him, anyway."

I scratched my nose. "Man, when it rains, it pours. And what do I do with these guys?"

"You'll need a few badges, to establish credibility as a trainer," N informed me. "People only listen to those of great learning or power here."

"Cobalion will make short work of Cheren. He's right down the road." Alder added, grinning.

'"He should do admirably against Roxie in Virbank, as well."

"A Pansear would do well against Burgh…"

I let them go on for a minute, and then I shook my head. "You know what I really wanna do?"

They both looked at me. "What's that?"

"There's one person in all this I haven't had a chance to thank. She never showed up here yesterday." I smiled.

"Nancy, or Yancy, as you know her, is waiting for you in Nimbasa City. She wants to ride the Ferris Wheel."

I made sure not to look at N's face, in case there was jealousy on it. "I'll just run over there… See ya later!"

I got about a mile before I had to stop, panting. I guess turning human took away my speed. I wasn't far from Giovanni's lean-to outside of Virbank by the time I stopped, so I picked my old Xtransceiver I found there. Then I ran back, and ducked in Alder's door. "How long… was I… gone?" I panted.

"Seven minutes," Alder answered, grinning. "How far did you get?"

"I made it… to where… I dropped the Xtransceiver…"

"That's definitely faster than the Shadow Triad," N offered, grinning. "And they are the fastest humans I know."

I pumped the air. "Still… got it!"

They laughed. And actually, I even heard Cobalion, way out in the back yard, laughing too. And I started laughing… between gasps, anyway.

Once I caught my breath, N showed me Giovanni's Pokeballs, and how to open them. I told Golurk what happened, and he was pretty cool about it. He dropped me off in Nimbasa City without complaint, and I wandered over to the Ferris Wheel, feeling invisible.

She was there, waiting, a white hat on her pink head. I ran up to her, waving. "Yancy! Hey."

She raised an eyebrow. "Do I… know you?"

I held out her xtranseciver. "Sorry I didn't answer yesterday. Bad trainer."

"Is it really you?" Her eyes lit up.

"Get on that wheel, and I'll show you." Then I shuddered. "That came out a little creepy."

We clambered into the car. She seemed nervous, fidgeting. But as soon as we started moving, I took off my hat, showing her my blue ears.

She hugged me.

"I'm so happy you're ok!" She let go of me, sitting in her own seat. "Oh, I know we barely talked, but it was just so nice to talk with you... and when I heard about the Sonic Boom in Undella, I knew something had happened to you!"

I grinned. "I know. And you? You might have saved my life. So I just had to see you in person, and thank you." I smiled at her.

"It was no problem." She smiled. And after I smiled back, I took a moment to look out at the view.

It was gorgeous. I could see so many places I'd been. The waterfall near Lostlorn Forest. The waterfalls near the Abundant Shrine. Reversal Mountain and the Giant Chasm off in the distance. I thought I could even see Twist Mountain and Mistraltron Cave the other way. As I turned my head, I could see the very tops of the castle peeking out of the Desert Resort, and the arena of the PWT over in Driftveil. And yet, there was so much of Unova I had yet to explore. So many friends I had yet to get to know.

When I glanced back at Nancy, she was still smiling, even bigger than she had before I looked away, but the ride was over. I tried to hand the xtransceiver back to her, but she folded my hands around it, touching them.

"Keep it, Sonic… I mean Hilbert. Everyone needs a phone. And I'd like it if we could keep talking. Well, I'd better get going, but I'll see you soon."

"Thanks. Keep smiling, Nancy."

I watched her walk away, and then I started north. I had some Pansears to greet.

Things went pretty well from there. It was really easy for me to put together a team, get a few badges, and get known enough for humans to listen to me as easy as Pokemon did. I even did a couple movies, and I helped Fennel with her research.

More important was the Pokeball change. N and I advocated for it. With a little coercing from Rosa, we got Colress to help us with a test run. Now Pokeballs in most regions are made not to force imprinting on Pokemon there. In most Pokemon, it still happens anyway, though. After all, isn't it normal to bond with your friends?

I had a lot of adventures. I fought in a lot of battles with my friends. Sometimes, when I really missed being in the thick of it myself, I even got out the mirror. I learned some neat parkour tricks from the Shadow Triad, even, although I can't do them as Hilbert. I wonder if they'll come in handy someday.

But eventually, it was time to go. I missed Tails and Knuckles, and even Amy. N missed Hilda, and got tired of having to leave a region as soon as we got done setting up Pokemon rights there.

One day, he just left. The night before we'd been talking about how to move on to the next region, and whether we'd hit the movies before we left Unova. Then, in the morning, he was just gone. A few days later I saw him in the newspaper, in a faraway land, on the back of a Pokemon I'd never seen before. He didn't say goodbye. He didn't need to. We were friends, we always would be… but I was a stand-in for someone else to him… and as awkward as he was about it, neither of us was really gay enough for me to ever really replace Hilda anyway.

So one day I left my team in Cobalion's care and said my goodbyes to them. They were sad to see me go, but they had expected it. I dropped in on Yancy to say goodbye to her. She wanted me to take the Xtransceiver, but I didn't think her parents would like the long distance charges from another universe. Still, I agreed I'd take it as far as I could before I'd end up back in my world.

I called in a favor and had Cresselia fly me back to where I started. Then I looked into the mirror, became Sonic one last time, and sent Burnet an e-mail about where I was. I left the mirror and my xtransceiver in a pile under a rock for her to find.

I hiked up the mountains, all the way back, back to the cave where I first found N. It was getting too late to go the rest of the way, and I heard activity inside, so I went in.

In the very same firepit N and I had sat around all those seasons beforehand, a nice fire was going, and a girl and a Samurott were sitting there. She had big brown hair piled on top of her head, a baseball cap, and a black vest.

"Howdy! Mind if I join you?"

She jumped, but the smiled at me, and gave a single nod. I walked over and sat. "Hi. I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. What's your name?"

"Hilda."

I thought I was going to have to swallow my heart as it leapt up into my throat. Could I finally give N what he wanted? "Say, Hilda… where you been all these years? N's been lookin' for you."

Her jaw dropped, and she stared at me blankly. I nodded. Then she pointed up the mountain… "The seasons…" She trailed off, looking confused.

"Different season back that way? Good. That means it might even take me home. But… before I go, I wanted to give you something." I pulled out the newspaper, and handed it to her. Her face lit up when she looked at it.

"That's where he is. Best of luck, Hilda. Tell him Sonic says, 'See ya.'"

She nodded at me as I stood. I waved goodbye, and out I went.

And then I wandered, looking for summer.

The next thing I knew, my neck was killing me. My back ached. And my nose… my nose had never hurt so much without being punched in my life.

I slowly came to, feeling around for the source of the pain. I found it: something flat on my face. I plucked it off… It was almost like a little hinged book made out of plastic… a video game system.

I looked down in my lap. A tablet with a page open that said "DROPPED ITEM GUIDE."

I sniffled. My nose. My nose was plugged. I was home sick again. …I was playing Tails' game.

All just a dream. Another time I threw myself into the middle of someone else's story like some kinda special snowflake. No wonder my friends were getting fed up with it. All that crazy stuff that happened to me was too much even for the game. It was just my imagination… Just me having to be larger than life.

I went up to scratch my head… and I was shocked at what I found…

I lifted it up and then pulled it down… a red baseball cap… with a Pokeball on it.


End file.
